Backup
by DhtrofIsis
Summary: After Malachor the Exile disappears to find Revan in the Unknown Regions. Carth, Atton and Mical follow their trail with various complications along the way. LSF Revan and LSF Exile based. Please R & R. Fan Girl Revenge ahead!
1. Begininngs

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or the characters. If I did Carth would be cleaning my house in the buff. 

I originally wrote this because I wanted to explore what a crew made up of Carth, Atton, and Di would be like. How would they interact? What would their relationships be like? It has now turned into a full-blown story. Orginially published on KOTOR Fan Media, although I put in a few corrections.

* * *

Five years after the destruction of the Star Forge:

"Carth, maybe….maybe it's time you looked to moving on," Admiral Dodonna looked up at the tall middle aged man standing before her, pity shining out of the large blue eyes that gave her an aura of sweetness belying the steely warrior underneath. "Four years Carth," she paused to take a steadying breath and then continued, hoping their friendship was enough to cross this line, "how long did you hold on to Morgana?" The man's shoulders tensed and he tried very hard not to glare at his superior officer. Instead he glared at the fleet admiral's desk which was littered with datapads and even hand scribbled notes, Dodonna had always been a bit eccentric in that.

Standing in Dodonna's office decorated in calming blues and peaches Carth tried to keep his face and tone courteous and noncommittal as his hands clasped behind his back clenched each other. By the look being reflected back up at him from the tall graying woman sitting before him, he wasn't doing so hot. Giving up he let his exasperation show. "Admiral, you know you have my utmost respect and admiration, but frankly you can't keep me. My commission's up, and I'm taking my out." That wasn't exactly true, there were provisions she could enact to keep Carth in the fleet but he prayed she wouldn't. He glanced over at Dodonna's form sitting behind her desk waiting for her to say something, but she just kept gazing up at him silently. It was making Carth uncomfortable and he worked not to squirm.

Finally Dodonna broke the silence. "How do you even know she's still alive Carth?" she knew it was a cruel question but a necessary one.

Carth sighed and ran a hand absently through his hair to brush back the two stray dark auburn locks, which promptly fell back into their accustomed place. "Permission to speak freely sir?"

Dodonna's mouth twisted into a mildly annoyed grimace. "You know you don't have to ask Carth, even if you are here in an official capacity."

Carth smiled a little sadly at her words. Yeah, he didn't have to ask. He could recall at least a few times when he had outright yelled and cursed at his friend and superior officer and she had never given him any professional reprimands. A few personal ones, but he had never been disciplined for speaking his mind to her. "I think, I think if she were dead I would know." Okay that sounded stupid, even to him.

Dodonna raised a fawn brown eyebrow at him. "Your not running off to join the Jedi are you?" she looked like she wanted to chuckle.

Carth did chuckle at her remark, "No sir, I'm a soldier, not a monk." Carth's face turned once again serious. He couldn't tell Dodonna the real reason, then she would think he was cracked. _Damn Jolee_, he thought. _He could have warned me_. Of course the truth was Jolee couldn't have warned him, he died before he had any chance to.

Admiral Dodonna stared at him for what seemed a full minute. Finally she spoke, "Resigning as an Admiral is career suicide Carth, do you really want to do this?" she looked at him earnestly.

Carth sighed again. "I love what I do Forn, as much as I hated being away from my family at the end of the day I am a soldier. It's all I've ever really been. But being a solder I lost a lot, maybe too much. I…I won't lose anymore. This is just something I have to do," Carth nodded emphatically at this statement. "I don't expect you to understand, or approve. I need to find her, and I can't do that and run a fleet of ships for the Republic at the same time." Carth took a deep breath and continued his argument. "Since the last battle with the Sith over Telos things have been quieter. The Jedi, the Republic, we're rebuilding. Except for the occasional raiders and pirates there's not really much for me to do. The Republic doesn't really need me right now, not like it did before, and I can't think of a better time to leave." His hands had left his back and were spread palms up in front of him in an almost pleading manner. Carth never could keep his hands still while he talked.

"The Republic will always need its heroes Carth." Carth inadvertently rolled his eyes at Dodonna's statement and she chuckled. "I'm sorry Carth, you're a hero, and you're just going to have to deal with that." Dodonna came to a decision, "I'm refusing to accept your resignation." Carth opened his mouth to protest and Dodonna held up a hand to stop him. "Hear me out Carth. I'm refusing your resignation and giving you an open ended leave of absence." Carth's eyes widened at this unexpected development. "You're right in that things are fairly quite right now, thank the Force. I think your being overly optimistic and a bit insane, but far be it from me to stand in the path of love." Her eyes twinkled mischievously at this statement. "I can see your mind is already made up Carth, but the Republic can't afford to lose you. So you go do whatever it is you intend on doing and we'll be waiting for you when you get back. Just try not to take too long, hmmm?" she raised an eyebrow at him and cocked her head to the side.

Carth didn't know what to say. He had expected a fight, he had expected to have to convince Dodonna to let him go, what he had not expected was such a generous offer. He was floored. "Forn, you could catch a lot of flack for this…"

Admiral Dodonna genuinely smiled, "You let me worry about that Carth. You go find your Jedi." She handed him a datapad with all the official paperwork for his leave and nodded at him. "Dismissed Admiral, and good luck." Carth took the datapad from her hand and gave her a sharp salute, unable to keep the grin off of his face.

Carth navigated the corridors of Dodonna's flagship making his way to the airlock. He passed a couple of female recruits as they whispered to each other while watching him and giggled nervously. He actually might be flattered if they were looking at him and not Carth Onasi: Republic War Hero. Still fit at forty three, he knew he was still attractive even if a few more gray hairs had crept into the hair at his temples and a few more lines graced his face. The gray had started cropping up after defeating Malak. His mind wandered as he walked.

* * *

"_Your getting a few gray hairs there flyboy," she smirked up at him playfully._

_He looked down at her and raised a russet eyebrow. "Well Beautiful," he grinned, "traveling with you for any length of time will do that to a man." She had threw back her head and laughed up at him at the remark._

"_I suppose it might at that." She beamed up at him. The smile slowly faded. "Any regrets?" she had asked almost timidly as she looked down and twirled a stray piece of curly brown hair that had escaped from her braid, or at least as timid as she ever good be, force of nature that she was._

_Carth snorted and placed his index finger gently under her chin, angling her face back up at him. In anything else she was confidence personified, but when it came to him she seemed unsure, maybe even a little guilty. "Never," he said, "never Beautiful." Her smile had seemed a little sad at his affirmation._

* * *

Carth exited the airlock onto Citadel Station. When he reached his quarters he punched up a link on his communicator he knew by heart. The person on the other end appeared and looked silently at him for a moment. He wasn't wearing the helmet, and to Carth's surprise he had grown a full beard since he'd last seen his face. He then smiled at Carth wolfishly and asked, "Yeah, what do you want?"

* * *

Carth took a breath and answered, "I need a favor."

Two nights earlier:

_The cantina was not a nice one. Bounty hunters, pazaak junkies and drunks littered the room. The walls were faded and stained with watermarks and possibly other fluids that were better left not contemplated. The furniture was old and worn with bits of stuffing poking through tears and holes of the unoccupied chairs and booths. The stink of desperation and abandoned hopes permeated along with cigarra smoke. Carth sat across from Bastila and watched as she shuffled the deck. Her graceful pale hands weaved the cards in and out of each other as she worked. Finishing her shuffling she laid the deck in the middle of the table and gestured for him to take a card. She was wearing her peach colored clothes this time, which Carth preferred to the Dark Jedi robes, too may bad memories associated with those._

_Carth drew a +5 card and Bastila took her turn. "I didn't figure you for a pazaak player," he commented as he looked at his side deck._

_Bastila shrugged one shoulder casually as she drew her card. "Mission did try to teach me once when I was in the _Hawk_ on Korriban, but no, it's not a game I particularly enjoy."_

_Bastila had a +3 card and Carth reached over to pull another from the deck. "Me neither," he said as he pulled a nine. "So why are we playing?"_

"_It seemed appropriate given the atmosphere," she said in her clear accented tones._

"_Yeah about that, why are we here?" he asked. This wasn't exactly Bastila's scene. Usually when he saw her it was on the _Hawk_ or the Dantooine plains._

_She looked up from her cards at him and tapped the table absently with her nails. "There's something here your need to see."_

_Carth scowled over the table at her, "Mind telling me where we are?"_

"_Nar Shaddaa, the Refugee Sector," she responded while waving her right hand about absently. "Only cantina in this area so you should be able to find it." At this comment she gave him one of her slightly superior smiles. Carth looked down and realized his hand had busted. He shoved his cards across the table at her and she began shuffling again._

"_Are you stacking the deck?" he asked suspiciously._

"_Yes," she said unperturbed, "Otherwise you are doomed to fail."_

_Carth ran a hand through his hair. "So what are you now Bastila, Jedi or Sith?" Carth couldn't count how many times he had asked her this question in their previous meetings._

_She smirked up at him. "Whatever is necessary. She taught me that you know." Bastila accented the word "she" as she set the cards down on the table. "It's time," she stated._

"_Are you sure?" he asked hopefully._

"_Yes," Bastila's face was sad. "That's why I brought you here. This is where the journey starts. It will not be easy Carth," her gray eyes were filled with an emotion he couldn't identify._

_He gave her a condescending look and replied, "I never thought it would be. That's never stopped me before, and it sure as hell isn't going to now."_

_Bastila responded to this with a genuine smile. "I know," she said softly. "But you will need help, and this is where it is."_

"_Nar Shaddaa?" he asked with eyebrows raised in disbelief, "In a cantina?"_

_She raised one of her own dark eyebrows and smirked, both of them had abandoned the card game. "You know better than anyone that allies are found in the most unlikely places. She taught us that as well," again accenting the word "she." Bastila stopped talking to look over at the entrance to the cantina and Carth followed her gaze. A man had sauntered in who screamed pazaak hustler. He was wearing a dark brown jacket with a couple of armor upgrades that covered a thin white shirt. His hair matched the jacket, unkempt locks going this way and that. Carth imagined had he walked into anywhere reputable he would have had the attention and suspicion of the entire room but here he was fairly anonymous. A droid followed after him and Carth almost fell out of his chair. "HK…" he whispered._

* * *

Carth bolted upright in his bed. The covers were sweat drenched and tangled around him. He sat for a moment in the dark of his quarters breathing heavily. Gods he hated those. As his breathing slowed and he calmed down Carth whispered in a prayer like voice, "It's time." 


	2. The Refugee Sector

Disclaimer: Not mine, unfortunately, so please don't sue me Georgie.

* * *

The ship wasn't very fast or very powerful, and he wouldn't go very far in it that was for sure. It was all Canderous could come up with on such short notice, and at least it got him to Nar Shaddaa and met his requirements of being anonymous and untraceable. Canderous had seemed rather gleeful at Carth's discomfort with the quality of ship and the amount of credits he had to fork over for it. He didn't think Canderous had screwed him, to get a ship with no past as fast as he needed must have cost a fortune, but it sure had brightened the Mandalorian's day to sell Carth a bantha crap ship. Carth hated Nar Shaddaa with a passion. Nothing good ever came to him here and he was wondering what the hell he was doing going to the moon looking for allies. _But HK-47 is here_, he thought. Not that he wanted to see the homicidal droid again…ever, but HK might know something. He had always assumed that she had taken the droids with her. Carth snorted to himself as he landed the craft in the Refugee Sector. He hated going into something without a plan, and 'find the psychotic droid' was not his idea of a solid one. 

The landing platform seemed fairly stable, he figured it would hold. While any part of Nar Shaddaa was bad, the Refugee Sector was the worst, especially when it came to the smell. It was right up there with the Tarisian sewer systems. Carth had strapped on his holster belt containing his two blasters and donned his orange flight jacket which had welcomed him back like an old friend. He stroked the nerf leather fondly remembering her asking about it. Carth had been remembering a lot lately, and he supposed it was to be expected.

* * *

"_Carth, can I ask you something without you freaking out?"_

_Carth steeled himself for another argument. "You're going to ask me even if I say no aren't you?" he looked straight ahead as they navigated the Upper City streets._

_She rolled her eyes, "Are you going to get testy again?"_

_Carth stopped walking and turned to her, "I don't get testy, I get angry, and if I get angry trust me you'll know." As soon as the words were out of his mouth he regretted them. _That was brilliant Onasi_, he berated himself mentally._

_Instead of getting mad though she merely cocked her head to the left and studied him. She chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. "I believe you," she finally said nodding. "So about my question…"_

_Carth sighed, "Fine, interrogate at will."_

_Something about this struck her as incredibly funny because she started laughing. Carth gave her a questioning look and she smiled. "Yes," she said dramatically, sounding like a bad holovid, "Soon all the secrets of the orange jacket will be mine!"_

_Carth couldn't help it he joined her laughter. "You want to ask about my jacket?"_

"_Yep," she said as they continued walking. "Where in the galaxy did you find that thing?"_

_Carth sidestepped the question, "What, you don't like it?"_

_She wrinkled her nose at hi,; Carth found it extremely charming. "Well it's orange!"_

"_It's comfortable," he shrugged and grinned._

"_Okay, but its so oooorange!" She drug out the last word as if orange equaled Gamorrean poo doo. "It's practically blinding. Didn't they have another color?"_

"_I think it makes me look sexy," he said lightly, although his stomach muscles were quivering and he had to exercise stern facial control not to let the smile that was threatening escape. She looked over at him in astonishment._

"_You're joking right?" she had stopped in her tracks and her ice colored eyes were round in disbelief._

"_What?" he pretended to be hurt. "You don't think I look sexy?"_

_He mouth opened and closed without sound over and over as various emotions played across her face, from anger to amusement to confusion. Finally she looked down at the street blushing, and grumbled, "I think we should get to the party."_

* * *

Shaking himself out of the memory he moved off into the Refugee Sector to find its one and only Cantina. It wasn't hard. There were neon lights at the far end of the gray and brown toned main hub and it was the only part of the area that attempted to look festive, although it failed miserably. He paused periodically to pass out a few credits to the bolder beggars who approached him, and send a couple of pointed glances at the groups of thugs that eyed him hungrily. Lucky for them none of them felt bold or desperate enough to take him on, there would be others later who were easier marks. In addition to his blasters Carth had a vibroblade strapped across his back for a quick reach and vibrodaggers poking out of each boot. He looked like a bounty hunter or merc, which was exactly what he was going for. It wasn't his weapons that made the smarter muggers balk though, it was the way his eyes scanned back and forth over the area looking for threats, the way he walked just slightly on the balls of his feet. Carth moved like he knew how to fight. Carth moved like he was dangerous. 

He came to the cantina entrance and opened the door. Walking inside the interior was just like the dream or vision or whatever. It was an exact match down to the shape of the stains on the wall and the table where he and Bastila had sat playing pazaak. Bastila wasn't sitting there though, which was a good thing as she was very dead. Carth didn't know if the table was important or not but it was unoccupied so he strolled over and took a seat. No one had even stopped him at the door. You knew it was a rough cantina when they didn't ask for you to disarm when entering.

A green and tan Twi'lek female moved over toward and smiled broadly at him as she flipped a head tail over her shoulder. Holding a data pad she leaned over to reveal her ample cleavage and asked in her native tongue, "_What would you like Handsome?"_ Carth realized she was offering more than a drink, although it shouldn't surprise him. He had certainly encountered cantina dancers and waitresses before that offered "extra services" if you had the credits.

"Alderaan beer if you've got it," he smiled pointedly at her eyes and ignored the hint. Carth dug out what he figured was enough credits for two beers and said, "Keep the change."

She smiled even wider, seeing a good tipper. "_You've got it Handsome,"_ and this time the compliment sounded genuine. As she left Carth gazed around the cantina (it didn't even have a name that he could tell) and watched the other patrons covertly, never letting his gaze rest anywhere for too long. It still disturbed him that the other sentients were the exact same ones in the dream. Carth sighed quietly. Nothing involving the Jedi should surprise him anymore. The Twi'lek came back with his beer and winked at him, but it was friendly rather than suggestive. "_You need anything else you let me know_." She had already figured out he was not interested in company, but he seemed to be rather free with the credits, and she wanted to stay on his good side and keep him that way.

"Actually I'm looking for somebody," Carth commented casually as he took a sip of the beer. It was flat, watered down and frankly what he would have expected of this place.

She smiled at him. _Bounty Hunter_, she decided quickly. "_Well, I might know something…of course my memory isn't what it used to be_." She looked at him expectantly. Carth restrained another sigh and dug in his pocket. Yeah he knew how the game worked, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it. Morii had always been better able to wheedle information out of people. She'd certainly done a bang up job with Carth.

Carth pulled out fifty credits and set them on the table. He covered them again with his hand as the waitress made a swipe at the pile and shook his head. "Not until your memory improves Sweetheart." His smile was all innocence.

She put a hand on her tightly clad hip and gave him a small wry smile._ "Alright Handsome,"_ she snorted good-naturedly, "_Who are you looking for?"_

"Pazaak player; about my height, brown hair, brown jacket." He took another sip of the nasty beer.

_"That'd be Rand; Atton Rand. He's pretty good,"_ the Twi'lek shrugged. "_Doesn't go into the Den though, I think he got kicked out of it_."

"Den?" Carth asked.

_"You must have just gotten to the area_," she smiled. "_The Pazaak Den is where all the high rollers are, I get the feeling he's more small time, either that or he got caught cheating. Might be better if he spent more time sober_." Carth lifted his hands off of the credits and the woman swiped them greedily. His hand snaked out almost too fast to see and grabbed the waitress's hand as she turned to leave.

She looked down in shock at her restrained wrist. "You expect him tonight?" Carth wasn't clutching hard enough to hurt, just enough to force her so squirm if she tried to break free.

_"He's here every night. Anything else Handsome?"_ Her tone was now mockingly suggestive.

"Nope," he said without looking at her and released her arm. Carth took another swig of the beer as she sauntered away and proceeded to wait. About half a standard hour later the man from his dream, Atton Rand entered the cantina minus one assassin droid. This Rand was scowling darkly and made a beeline for the bar. Carth didn't know why the man was angry, although if Carth had HK in his possession he'd probably be scowling too. After retrieving a drink Rand approached one of the tables and joined the card game already in progress there. Carth kept an eye on him out of his peripheral vision and glared menacingly at anyone besides the waitress who tried to approach him.


	3. Landing Pad

A/N: For all the Atton lovers out there; you'll either love this, or hate it.

* * *

Atton was extremely hung-over, therefore he was extremely surly. He brooded darkly at the engine access panel on the outside of the Ebon Hawk in a way that suggested it had personally insulted him. Picking up a hydrospanner Atton attempted to repair a connection but got a shower of sparks shot at his right hand for the trouble. Cursing in Hutteese he grabbed an unpowered wrench and proceeded to beat the starboard engine cell into submission.

"Stupid…" THWAP! "Piece of…" THWAP! "bantha…" THWAP! "Crap!" Atton screamed at the ship. "I hate this tub! I hate you!" THWAP! THWAP! THWAP! T3 bwooted and chirped in irritation behind him. Atton spun around and yelled, "Well no one asked you!" Atton paused as he realized that Mical was standing behind T3 staring at him in mild surprise with his arms crossed over his chest. The Padawan's lightsaber swung lazily from his brown robe belt.

"While I realize that I am not very knowledgeable in ship engine repair," he began in that silly upper class voice that Atton hated, "I am fairly certain that bludgeoning isn't very productive to the smooth running of a vessel."

Atton poked the wrench in Mical's direction as if to impale him with it from a distance. "Yeah, well no one asked you either! So why don't you go meditate or something? Some of us have work to do."

Mical almost smiled. "As appealing as that sounds," _was he being sarcastic_? Atton wondered darkly, "meditation is somewhat difficult while you are fixing the ship so _loudly_." Mical then smiled brightly at Atton.

"Then why don't you go feed some orphans or rehabilitate some Spice junkies or something? I'm busy!" Atton turned back to the ship and struck it again just to irritate Mical. Mical threw up his arms in exasperation and walked back up the Ebon Hawk's boarding ramp. Atton's mood had not been improved and he maliciously struck the engine five more times just to piss Mical off. His anger worn down Atton sighed. _Why did she leave_? He wondered forlornly. _Why didn't she tell us? Why didn't she take us with her? Why didn't she even tell us she was going?_ Atton wanted to be angry with Ara but he couldn't, so he settled for being angry at the ship and Mical instead.

Atton huffed loudly and picked up the hydrospanner once more. The plan was to fix the ship and go after Ara, irritating Jedi woman! The problem was that fixing the ship was not turning out to be easy. After Malachor V they had been lucky to limp the ship anywhere inhabited but why did it have to be Nar Shaddaa of all ports? And after they had gotten there the crew had gone their separate ways, and their remaining credits to pay for it. Mira went in search of new fluffy do good bounties, Visas had gone to Coruscant to help with the Jedi rebuilding stuff, Goto's droid was deactivated and destroyed by the explosion of Malachor V (_Yay_! Thought Atton smugly), Mandalore had disappeared after their second lovely trip to Telos, and Bao Dur…Bao Dur hadn't made it. Atton had actually liked Bao Dur, it was hard to not like the mellow Zabrak. That had really hurt Ara, his not surviving the crash. She had taken it hard. Atton had held her while she cried softly for his death. Guiltily he had a brief swell of selfish pleasure that Ara had cried on his shoulder, not Mical's. _He_ had been the one she came to for comfort.

Atton once again stuck the hydrospanner into the compartment a bit more cautiously this time. Atton and Mical had stayed with Ara, neither one willing to leave her. In Atton's case he really had nowhere else to go. And then she had just left. No warning, no note, nothing. She hadn't even taken the droids with her. Of course in that psycho HK-47's case Atton couldn't blame her. The assassin droid was becoming more and more of a problem. It didn't follow orders if it didn't feel like it and constantly back talked both him and Mical. At least HK hadn't made any attempts at large scale slaughter of the Sector populace…yet. Atton almost had the connection completed when someone spoke behind him, "Nice ship you've got there."

Atton jumped and dropped the spanner, in the process severing the connection he had just fixed. Swearing profusely in Rhodian he grabbed at the tool before it burned something else. Unfortunately in doing so Atton ended up burning the palm of his hand. He switched back to Hutteese to better express his utter pissed off-ness. Atton was so busy thinking up new insulting names to call the person who interrupted him that it took him a moment to realize that T3 was circling around the tall auburn haired man crazily while bweeting, bwooping and chirping its voice processor off like it'd caught a virus. Atton watched in open mouthed shock with his burn temporarily forgotten as the droid continued its bizarre happy dance…or roll or whatever while the man laughed uproariously at it, reaching out his arms and grabbing at T3. The droid however was so worked up that it failed to notice and continued the weird greeting with increasing volume. The noise was murder on his hangover, causing Atton to put his hands over his ears to protect their fragile state and yelling at the top of his lungs, "T3 for the love of the first Council…shut the hell UP!" T3 froze, startled out of its joyous reunion and stopped vocalizing in mid bwoop. If the droid had a face it would have probably looked astonished. The man however seemed vaguely amused and Atton had a sneaking suspicion that he was aware of Atton's hangover.

Atton sized up the man who had apparently caused the droid to blow its core. Tall, about Atton's height actually; early to mid forties, and an awful orange jacket. The man had a strong build, his muscles having become sinewy and roped with age. Those weren't gym conditioned either, he had earned them honestly. Someone to be careful of, Atton decided. He got the feeling that the man was doing the same to Atton and had come to a similar conclusion by the wary respect in his eyes. The mystery man's smile never faltered however. He hooked his thumbs in this blaster belt and gestured his head toward the ship. "That's the Ebon Hawk isn't it? She's famous."

"What the frak did you do to my droid?"


	4. Reunions

AN: Ah if only they were shirtless for this x)

* * *

"You're not listening; none of it's for sale. Sorry go find another ship and someone else's droids." Atton was getting irritated at the man who had introduced himself as Carth Vohn. He had immediately offered to buy both T3 and the Hawk off of Atton along with everything on the ship including any other droids. Every time Atton refused he raised his offer. The guy was either rich, nuts, or a rich nut. "What do you want with a broken ship and a couple of faulty droids anyway?" Atton asked suspiciously.

"I told you, the Hawk is famous…wait, what's wrong with the droids?" Carth asked with concern in his voice. T3 was hovering anxiously next to this "Carth" and positively vibrating while emitting low "dwoo" noises.

"Look at it, first off it needs a good memory wipe." Atton gestured at T3. T3 let out a string of noise that could almost be classified as cursing. Most of it was uncomplimentary and all of it was directed at Atton. "Get out of here you trash compactor!" He kicked out a leg and T3 backed up, extending its stun ray and blooting angrily at Atton.

"Hey!" Carth said. "Knock that off!"

"Oh yeah," Atton put his fists on his waist and said, "What's it to you? It's my droid and I can melt it down for scrap if I want to." Atton sneered at Carth. T3 was whistling in increasing anxiety but neither man noticed. Not that Atton would trash T3, Ara would kill him.

Carth's jaw stiffened and he narrowed his eyes while glaring at Atton. "Just what is your problem anyways buddy?" T3 had given up trying to get either human's attention and rolled hurriedly off into the ship.

Atton leaned over and poked Carth in the chest. "My problem…" he poked Carth in the chest again, "is you…_buddy_."

"Don't do that again," Carth growled, "unless you want to lose that finger."

Atton smiled thinly, "Big talk old man."

"Look, I'm not going to tell you again. I want the ship, and I want the droids. Name the price and it's yours. But damage anymore of my property and you're going to regret it." Carth hissed through clenched teeth.

"Your property?" Atton couldn't believe this jerk! There was no way he was going to sell Ara's stuff! "They don't belong to you and they're not going to! So you can just march your happy butt right down the walkway pal!" At this point Atton and Carth were practically nose to nose with fists clenched and faces flushed with rage.

"They…don't…belong…to you!" Carth whispered fiercely. Now he was furious. What the hell was wrong with this guy? He obviously was hard up for credits by the way he had been hitting the pazaak tables, the Hawk was in shambles and he was a piss poor mechanic to boot. Carth needed the ship as well as the droids to find her, and he wasn't leaving without them. "Did you steal them?" he yelled. "I don't give a damn if they're hot." Carth chopped his right hand down in emphasis.

"Why you sorry son of a…" Atton cocked back a fist and Carth dropped into a fighting stance. Before either could move any further they were both propelled back from each other at unbelievable speed. Carth landed on his back in momentary confusion and then realized he had been Force pushed. He had experienced the sensation often enough in the past, he mused wryly. Maybe the Exile was here after all? Did this core slime work for her? Picking himself off the ground Carth looked up at the figure standing next to T3 who was hooting in distress. Instead of the serene blonde woman he had briefly met at the Citadel Station he saw…

"Mical?" Carth asked in confusion.

The male Padawan jerked his blonde head back in surprise as his blue eyes widened in shock. "Admiral?" Mical stared at him in surprise for a moment but quickly recovered. "I do apologize Admiral…I would have never…I mean…I didn't realize. T3 told me that Atton was ready have an altercation that looked to turn violent and then I came out here and saw…"

Carth cut him off. "Don't worry about it Mical, you just averted a probable fight and assured your companion's continued heath."

Atton who was still prostrate on the ground said, "You wish." Atton then picked himself up and brushed off the back of his pants. "Who is this jerk Mical? And why are you calling him Admiral?"

Carth's chest heaved in a tired sigh. "Well so much for my cover," he smirked. "I always sucked at undercover anyways. Been training with the Exile Mical? Or were you holding out on me?"

"The first one actually. Admiral Onasi, may I ask what you are doing on Nar Shaddaa?"

"Now that is a long story. Where is Jedi Firestorm? Were you with her on Telos?" He had only met the Exile; he hadn't even know Canderous had traveled with her until his recent trip to Dxun.

"Well yes we met on Dantooine as I was investigating the Enclave ruins. As for where she is now…"

"Salutation: Greetings Republic Meatbag! Query: Is the Master with you?"

Carth's face twisted into a frown as he looked over at the burnt orange droid exiting the Hawk. "HK-47, I see your programming is as charming as ever."

"Response: Thank you Republic Meatbag. Please tell me you have the Master in your company. Statement: I have grown weary of the company of the pious Jedi Meatbag and the cranky Pilot Meatbag. I was considering eliminating them until I heard the Astromech droid mention you. Even the Exile Meatbag was a preferable master to these two." HK's head had cocked to the side in what Carth would have sworn was hope.

"Wait, HK you know this guy?" Atton asked in disbelief.

"Response: Affirmative Meatbag. This is the Republic Meatbag!" If Carth didn't know better he thought HK sounded happy to see him. "My Master is very fond of the Republic Meatbag, so unfortunately I have never had the chance to kill him."

"Gee, thanks HK," Carth commented sarcastically.

"Reply: You are welcome Republic Meatbag!"

"Ara's fond of you?" Atton asked in confusion, and if he was honest a bit of jealousy. "I thought she only met you for a minute on Telos?"

"Protest: The Exile Meatbag is not my Master!" HK said in offended tones. "At least not my true Master."

Mical walked over to HK-47 intrigued. "So who is your true Master HK?"

HK's head jerked over to look at Carth. "Query: Do I have your permission to inform them of my Master's identity Republic Meatbag?"

Carth's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Why are you asking _my_ permission HK?"

"Answer: The Master left a hidden subroutine in my memory core that would only be activated should I encounter you Meatbag. My memories have once again been fully restored and I am to follow your orders second only to the Master's instructions. For all intensive purposes you are my master now Republic Meatbag, although calling you master was thankfully not in my directives." Carth smacked his forehead with the heel of his palm in frustration. Mical stared at Carth and Atton began swearing in what sounded like Selkath of all things.


	5. Teatime

They were sitting around the communication holoprojector cum table on the Hawk. Mical had made Deralian tea which had caused Carth to smile sadly into his mug, although the other two men had no idea why. He told them everything, the whole story for the most part. About the Endar Spire; the quest for the Star Maps; the revelation of Revan; the defeat of Malak and the destruction of the Star Forge, and her leaving him a year later. The men sat in shock staring at him.

Atton was the first on to break the silence. "So you were boinking the Dark Lord? Wow, you've got more guts than I do."

Carth glared at him. "First off; it wasn't like that. Second, you ever talk about her like that again I'm going to beat you to a bloody pulp!"

Atton held up his hands in apology. "Sorry; I honestly didn't mean anything by it," Atton could relate to Carth's anger as he'd feel the same way if someone insulted Ara. "It's just…well…I guess I still see her as _Darth_ Revan…and well… it took me by surprise is all."

Carth calmed down. "Yeah, well it took me a while to see past Darth Revan as well." He gazed sadly into his tea, his thoughts far away. "I would have done anything for her," he said softly; "and she asked me to do the hardest thing of all: she asked me to stay behind."

"Yeah well at least you got a goodbye," Atton said bitterly as he pushed his empty cup to the center of the table in frustration which Mical calmly refilled. Carth looked up at him in confusion but it was Mical who answered his unspoken question as he poured.

"Ara disappeared four standard months ago," he said sadly; setting the teapot down. "We woke up one morning and she was gone; no message, nothing. She just took her personal belongs and according to the dock manifests boarded a freighter to Tatooine. From there we have to idea what happened to her. As you can see our ship is in no condition to go after her."

"Yeah well when I find her I'm putting her over my knee and teaching her a lesson!" Atton said vehemently. Carth almost choked on the sip of tea he had just taken at Atton's statement. He then threw back his head and laughed. Atton scowled at him. "What you think that's funny? I'm being serious here! Irritating Jedi woman," he grumbled.

Carth smiled at the scowling pilot and felt a keen kinship with him. "Yes it is funny, but not for the reason you think," he answered with a soft smile. Atton looked up at Carth and saw something almost friendly reflected in his eyes. His face softened a bit.

"Well," Mical tried brightly; "It seems the Force has brought us together for a reason, although I have to admit that reason eludes me at the present. Perhaps our searches are tied together somehow?"

"I hate the Force," Atton grumbled and took a drink of the now tepid tea.

"Be that as it may Atton," Mical responded; "I think that we were destined to meet."

"Why?" Atton shot back. "So we could all share in out pain?" he asked sarcastically. "I don't want to share with you Mical. I don't want to share with Admiral Fancy Pants cum Ugly Jacket either! I want to find Ara, drag her back, and lock her up until she apologizes! So you two want to bond and perform some sort of drum beating ritual go ahead! Me, I feel like getting drunk!"

"Again?" Mical asked smarmily.

"Ah go blow yourself out an airlock!"

Atton proceeded to get up and rummage through the cupboards. As he moved through them the banging of cabinet doors became increasingly louder in his frustration.

Finally Mical sighed and said, "Atton you've already drank everything on the ship!"

"Damn!" Atton flopped back down into the chair and started to pout. He briefly considered wandering over to the cantina but was too despondent to muster up the energy.

Carth watched the scene silently. It hadn't taken him very long to figure out what was going on with the two men, and he wondered if him and Canderous would have been like this had Canderous had any romantic interest whatsoever in Revan. _Well well well_; he thought, _the Exile certainly left a mess behind didn't she_? He began to speak, "So Mical, what exactly are you proposing here?"

"I'm afraid I'm not really sure. It's just a feeling I have really. Perhaps the Exile went to seek out Revan?" He responded hesitantly.

"Why would she do that?" Atton asked. Mical had to admit it sounded a bit far-fetched even to him.

"Interjection: I believe the Jedi Meatbag may be correct Republic Meatbag."

"And why is that HK?" Carth asked perking up.

"Answer: During the Exile Meatbag's journeys on the Master's ship I was privy to several conversations between her and the Old Meatbag…" Carth looked over in confusion at the other two men.

"He means the witch." Atton grumbled waving his arm in dismissal.

"Correct Pilot Meatbag. They discussed the Master on a number of occasions. I also believe that it was the Old Meatbag who deactivated me and scattered my components all over the galaxy. Statement: Were she not already dead I would give her a slow and painful demise for this."

"Yeah well join the club," Atton muttered and Mical frowned at him.

"So who was this witch?" Carth asked.

"Kriea," Atton responded with narrowed eyes. "She was a Sith we hooked up with on Peragus, although none of us really could remember that she was a Sith, at least not for very long. Every time you'd start to have suspicions or figure it out the information would just slide right out your brain. I've never encountered a Jedi or Sith as good at Mind Control as her. But she was crazy, wanted to destroy the Force, wanted to use Ara to destroy the Force."

Carth crossed his arms and tilted his head in puzzlement. "Okay I'm not an expert here but I've been around enough Jedi to know that the Force is supposed to be in everything. If you destroyed the Force itself…"

"Like I said, crazy," Atton answered.

"I actually knew who she was due to my research, but she continually caused me to forget her, forget she was on the ship. It was very…disconcerting." Mical shifted uncomfortably in his chair at the memory.

"Who was she?" Carth asked him.

"She was Revan's first Master," Carth stared at Mical. "Many of the Order blamed her for Revan's fall after the Madalorian Wars. She like the Exile was considered banished, although I'm not entirely convinced that the Council officially exiled her. Much of Kriea's history was deleted from the Jedi Archives. I think there is something in there that they wanted forgotten." Mical shrugged. "It certainly wouldn't be the first time they had done something like that."

Carth snorted at this. Turning back to HK-47 he asked, "What did you hear exactly that makes you think that?"

HK-47 instead of answering started projecting a holo onto the table. The Exile Ara and an elderly woman in a brown hooded robe were facing each other talking. Carth realized with a start that the other woman was blind.

"_Did you know Revan?"_ the Exile asked.

"_Yes I knew her," _the woman who must have been this Kreia answered. _"At least as well as anyone did. I was one of her teachers, her first teacher actually."_

"_What was she like?" _Ara queried.

"_Revan was power," _Carth felt the hairs on the back of his arms rise at her tone. _"Looking at her was like staring into the heart of the Force. So much power that it was blinding. After me she sought out other teachers, including that fool Zhar, but in the end when they had nothing else to teach her she returned to me. To learn how to leave the Jedi once and for all."_

The Exile appeared disturbed. _"Do you know why she turned to the Darkside?"_

"_No…" _the old woman smiled slyly. Carth thought she was lying. _"No one does. But did she really turn?"_

"_What do you mean?" _the Exile asked; appearing confused. _"She killed millions, slaughtered worlds…"_

"_Or perhaps the mantle of a Sith Lord was merely another tool, another weapon in her arsenal?" _Kreia countered. _"Revan was never one to be easily manipulated or swayed. I do not believe that the Jedi changed Revan as they claimed. I believe all they did was strip away certain trappings. What remained was still Revan, who she was at her very core. No one knew war like Revan. No one understood it the way she did. No one could have accomplished what she had. And perhaps that is why she left. To seek other battles?"_ Kreia said this last bit like a question.

"_Do you know where she went?" _Ara asked quietly. All three men in the ship leaned forward eagerly.

"_No one really does," _Kreia replied almost airly. _"Revan was said to have been born outside known space, in the Unknown Regions. No one knows where she truly came from. Perhaps that is where she went. Perhaps…perhaps you will follow her Exile. She will need allies to battle what is to come, allies both Jedi and Sith. Revan knew something was coming."_ Kreia's voice had dropped to a hiss. _"Something that caused her to turn to the Darkside and raise an army. But conquest was never Revan's ultimate goal. She left factories, weapons plants, militaristic worlds intact, even ones that opposed her. But why? That is the real question. That is the question the Jedi failed to ask." _Kreia sank into a mat on the floor. _"Leave me now, I must rest." _The holo faded as the Exile left the room.

All three men sat in silence as the ship's computers made faint noises in the background. Carth had his head bent downward, his chin resting on his thumb and index finger, deep in thought. Atton stared at HK-47 a bit wide eyed. Mical was actually watching Carth. Finally Carth lifted his head and looked at the other two. "I think we need to head to Deralia."


	6. Memories

_Carth awoke alone. It was still night on Coruscant, still dark, although Coruscant was never truly dark. Lights filtered through the window and illuminated her form sitting on the sill. Her body was tight and her face pensive._

"_Another nightmare?" Carth asked a bit sleepily._

"_No," Morii answered without looking at him. "But it was a memory." Carth stayed silent, waiting for her to come to a decision. Sometimes she would tell him what she remembered, but sometimes she would just shake her head. Her lips would be pressed together tightly and her eyes averted, refusing to look at him. At those times he was not sure he wanted to know anyways from the way she would wake up screaming. Carth loved her more than anything, but he didn't pretend to understand her._

_Finally Morii spoke quietly, "Do you remember when I told you I was from Deralia?"_

"_Yeah, I remember," he answered noncommittally._

"_Well, it was true…and it wasn't…" she began. Without a word Carth moved the covers off of him and left the bed. Coming up to Morii's sitting form he leaned a bit into her and wrapped his arms around her, tucking her head under his chin. He found at times it helped when he held her. Sometimes it was easier when she could feel him without seeing him. Carth often thought this was one of the things she liked best about him, his ability to read her and respond correctly without words._

_Morii sighed in relief and leaned into his bare chest. "I…the family I remembered, they were my family…from Deralia. Except that I left for the Jedi at twelve, all the memories of them after that are Council implants. They really were killed by Mandalorians, and I really did want revenge, but I didn't find the bodies, not like I thought I did before. Nice little morbid memory for them to throw in, huh?" She laughed a little bitterly and he squeezed her gently in response. "But…but they weren't my first family. I think…I think I was adopted. I came from…somewhere else, somewhere where something," Morii halted, "something bad happened, but I survived, and I was adopted by the parents I remember. I can see faces, hear voices…people I loved…but they're faint…blurred. I think I was very young."Morii looked upintoCarth's face at this. "I need to go back there at some point to see if there's anything…records or something. I feel like it's important." She nodded her head for emphasis._

"_Do you want me to come?" he asked._

_She smiled at him slyly, "Always, flyboy."_

* * *

"So we go to Deralia, and then what?" Atton asked. 

"Well first off see if she was there. I think we should stop off on Tatooine too, if Jedi Firestorm was really headed there. Then we see if she found anything. She left before…before we could go." Carth ran a hand through his hair, temporarily brushing the stray ones back.

"Why do you think she would ask you to go, and then leave and go without you?" Mical asked gently.

"Morii didn't always share with me the things she recalled," Carth started. "There were things that were just too horrible for her to share. It wasn't just her time as a Sith, it was before that too. The Mandalorian Wars were bad for everyone who fought in them," Carth paused momentarily lost in thought and memory, "but I think for her and the other Jedi they were worse. I do know that something was driving her. The more she remembered, the more agitated she got, the more restless." Carth vigorously brushed his hair back again in frustration. "Until she told me she was leaving."

* * *

"_I don't want to leave Carth, I have to leave!" Morii yelled up at him._

"_Why Morii? Can't you at least tell me why dammit!" he threw his hands out in frustration._

"_Look Carth, I have to go. I have to stop it before it gets here!" her hands were on her hips now, never a good sign._

"_What is it? What do you have to stop?" he asked for the tenth time._

"_I told you I don't know! I just know its coming!" she was confused and angry._

"_Well then I'm going with you!" he yelled at her._

"_I told you, you can't come!" she was practically screaming now._

"_Morii you're not going off Force knows where by yourself! Even you need help blast it! You can't do everything! You'll get yourself killed!"_

"_This is not a discussion Carth. I'm going, soon. I have to go, and I have to go alone!" She didn't seem to know if she was angrier at him or at her own uncertainty. A small part of Carth told him to knock it off, to stop aggravating her. Anger leads to Hate, Hate leads to Veiny Sith Lord, all that stuff. But he was too wound up to think straight._

"_How can you do this to me?" he roared. "How can you tell me you're leaving, going off into danger, and tell me to stay behind? I'm not losing you! I won't go through that AGAIN!" The room fell dead silent at this._

_Carth gently put a hand on each of Morii's upper arms. Her eyes were shining with unshed tears. "Morii, please…you can't ask me this," he was pleading now instead of yelling. "You of all people know…" his throat closed up. "I'm begging here Beautiful."_

"_Carth," a tear slid down her cheek. She wiped it away and started again. "Carth…if you come with me, you'll die." Her voice was small and desperate. "Everything I've ever cared about, everyone I've ever loved I…I can't lose you either. I need to know you're here. I need to know you're safe. I…" she looked down at the floor. "I can't ask you to wait for me; I don't know how long I'll be gone. I just need to know you're safe." The last bit was said in a whisper. "Maybe later…maybe you can follow, but not now. I just know that now if you come, or if you follow me, you won't make it."_

_Carth pulled her roughly into his arms and clutched her tightly, his eyes closed in frustration and grief. He would do it, he knew he would do as she asked, but damn if it wasn't killing him. Morii's arms were wound just as hard around Carth and clutched at the fabric of his shirt tightly, as if she were clinging to a last refuge in an asteroid field._

_She turned her face out of his neck where she had been huddled to talk and laid a cheek on his shoulder. "Carth, I'll understand if you aren't here when I get back. I…I…won't blame you. But I need you to be here, I need you to keep the Republic safe, keep it strong, in case…in case I fail."_

"_Stop talking like that,"Carth muttered gruffly as he stroked her loose corkscrew hair. "Of course I'll be here when you get back. Where else have I got to go? You think I'm going to find another woman who'll put up with my paranoia even if I looked?" Morii snorted at that. "Besides," Carth continued, "You're coming back," he said firmly. "Because if you don't come back I'm going to find you and drag your Sith butt back here, got it Gorgeous?"_

_Moriichuckled softly and looked up into his face. "I think you mean that flyboy," she said in an attempt at levity._

"_Of course I do Revan,"Carth leaned down and took her lips._

* * *

"Huh?" Carth's head jerked up as he was pulled out of the memory by someone's voice. 

"I said we need to get the credits and parts to fix the Hawk if we're really going to do this," Atton repeated.

"I'm afraid we're in a bit of a financial bind Admiral," Mical added. "What few credits we had left Ara apparently used to book her passage."

"Yeah well you handing them out to every beggar in the Hub doesn't help either," Atton muttered. Mical frowned at him.

"Well I think I can help with that," Carth smirked.

"You got a ship?" Atton's head came up hopefully.

"If you can call it that, it's in worse shape that the Ebon Hawk." Carth frowned. Atton opened his mouth but Carth interrupted. "Being an Admiral does pay well… very well, and I've had little else to spend my credits on the past couple of years except the land I put a down payment on on Telos."

"You'll pay to fix the ship?" Mical asked expectantly.

"If I get to come with," Carth said.

"Of course, of course Admiral," Mical nodded and assured him happily. Atton didn't look too thrilled though.

"There just one problem," Atton crossed his arms over his chest. "We still need someone to actually fix this tub, and I don't trust any of the mechanics in this sector with fixing a food replicator, much less fixing a freighter."

Carth looked over at Atton and smiled. "Well then, we're in luck. I happen to know of a completely trustworthy mechanic right here in the Refugee Sector. He's not the best, but he'll get the job done and get her flying."

"Who?" Atton snorted in disbelief.

Carth crossed his own arms over his chest, leaned back in his seat and smiled wider at Atton. "Me."

Mical grinned as well while Atton's forehead thumped into the table in despair. "Ow," Atton muttered softly.


	7. Takeoff

Carth had moved all of his gear onto the _Ebon Hawk _and found a buyer for the ship he came in, which he had dubbed "The POS" on his way into the system. The buyer would most likely use it for unsavory purposes and he hadn't even gotten half of what he paid for it, but he had gotten what he came for and he considered it a success. The ship repairs were for the most part complete after five days of continuous work and almost as continuous bickering. On the bright side, Atton had stayed out of the cantina almost the entire time. Carth suspected desolation rather than an addiction had driven him to spend so much time there. He certainly didn't want to be going into unknown danger with a drunk as backup.

Except for the fact that he complained most of the time and was irritating either Carth or Mical, he was just as dedicated as the other two. Carth thought he might even make a decent mechanic someday, if he ever actually listened to instructions. Mical, on the other hand, had been courtesy and politeness personified, and after day two Carth was beginning to wonder what the hell was wrong with him. Even for a Jedi he was too…nice. Carth had only met Mical briefly when he recruited him for that mission, so he wondered if this was a recent personality development or if the soldier had always been that way. While he restrained himself, Carth actually found that he looked forward to Atton's needling of Mical, just to see if the Padawan would rise to the bait. He never seemed to go beyond mildly perturbed. It was just weird.

Those two were outside with T3, doing what, he didn't know. He was enjoying the solitude, although HK was in the hanger. He wandered the ship in silence with only his memories for company. Occasionally, he let his fingers brush a wall lightly or run over a computer panel in affection. He was taking his time moving to the cockpit, allowing it all to wash over him, good and bad. He couldn't help but love this ship, despite all the emotional baggage she carried. He ignored the questions and fears that had been plaguing him and just lost himself in the past. He paused when he reached the door to the bridge. Silly as it was, he almost thought she would be there in cockpit on watch, curled up in the pilot's chair.

* * *

"_Hey, that's my seat, Beautiful," he protested playfully as he walked in._

"_I know." Her smile was slow and lovely. "It smells like you."_

"_Oh, so now I smell?" he asked in mock offended tones._

"_Like a rackghoul."_

"_Care to share a seat with a smelly rackghoul, Gorgeous?" he asked._

_Her smile brightened and she got up, waving her hands toward it in a mock chivalrous gesture. He grinned and moved over to the pilot's chair, pulling her down onto his lap, laughing at her squeal of surprise and pleasure._

* * *

Carth spread a palm to the door and leaned his forehead against it. She was all he had left. Dustil…better not to think about Dustil. He really messed that up. So little time; first when he was at war, and then… They had finally started building up a relationship, he thought he was finally going to be able to make it up to Dustil, and everything was taken away from him again. Carth's fingers curled into a fist, anger and shame burning through his gut. They had had so little time! So much to fix, so much to repair, and now…Carth fought back the tears that threatened, pushed his form up off of the door and opened it. Trying now not to think of anything, he stepped into the cockpit.

* * *

"What, are you supervising or something?" Atton comment was confrontational, but the tone of his voice was conversational. 

"Actually, I thought I'd give the Admiral some time alone on the ship." Mical's voice was soft.

Atton finished blowing dirt and debris out of the engine exhaust. Damn if Onasi wasn't right, it did help the performance. Not that he'd ever tell him that. "So let me ask you Mical, just how do you know the Admiral?" 'Admiral' was said in faintly mocking tones.

Mical was leaning against the side of the exhaust tube. He turned his head and smiled at Atton faintly. "Who exactly do you think sent me on my mission to find the remaining Jedi?" he asked.

"So you were spying on us?" Atton was more confused than upset.

"No. I was sent to try and convince any Jedi I found to return to the Republic. Besides, the Admiral already knew about Ara, although he never had the opportunity to meet with her and present his case before the…_Ravager_ and Darth Nihilus. And after, I think he didn't feel he had the right to ask."

"'Kay," Atton replied absently as he fiddled with a couple of loose wires. He'd have to figure out a way to mention those to Onasi without actually appearing to ask for help. "So…T3 hand me that solder would ya?" T3 rolled off to the toolbox. "So why didn't you go with Visas back to Jedi Land?" he tried to ask casually.

Mical raised his eyebrows and smiled again while Atton took the tool from the droid and began working. "You are perfectly aware of why Atton. Despite your behavior to the contrary, you are a highly intelligent individual."

"Yeah, and I'm good lookin' too." Mical snorted at Atton's comment. "Why couldn't we leave, though? I mean, the others cared for her. They left; why didn't we?"

"I don't think an answer to that question is really what you're looking for." Mical sighed. "Perhaps because we are more devoted to her, perhaps because our devotion takes a different form, perhaps because we are male and no matter how capable she is we feel some foolish need to try and protect her." A comfortable silence stretched between them.

"Maybe…maybe that's why she left without telling us?" Atton said as he frowned at his work. Satisfied he looked over at Mical and said, "Maybe she knew we'd pull some idiotic guy crap and end up getting us or her hurt."

Mical looked sad. "Perhaps."

"Are we doing the right thing here, Mical?" Anxiety was all over Atton's face.

"I do not truly know, Atton, but can we do anything else?"

* * *

Carth found Atton sitting in the common room later that evening, alone. He appeared to be playing pazaak, although he'd often pause for long intervals before drawing cards. Walking into the room, Carth asked, "Where's Mical?" 

Atton wave a hand toward the back of the ship. "Doing whatever it is Jedi do for in their quarters for hours on end." Atton dealt another card.

"So," Carth started, "did you find the stash?"

Atton looked up, confused. "Huh? What stash?"

One side of Carth's mouth lifted in a half-smile. "The _Hawk_ used to be a smuggling vessel, did you know that?"

"Nope," Atton answered, uninterested, retuning to his cards.

"Hmmm." Carth looked off into nothingness for a moment. "I'll be right back."

"Whatever," Atton shrugged. He stared at his cards, not really seeing them, just playing out of general boredom. Carth had wandered off toward the back of the ship. Atton heard some noise coming from the cargo hold and cocked his head in curiosity. A few minutes later, Carth reappeared with a bottle in each hand. He walked over toward the table and set one down in front of Atton, then strolled over to the chair across the table and sat down. Atton raised a questioning eyebrow at Carth and then at the bottle. Carth merely grinned back at him.

"I thought I drank all the booze?" Atton smirked.

"You missed some," Carth retuned the expression. "I feel like getting drunk, Rand. Care to join me?"

"What is this?" he asked warily.

"This," Carth said as he cracked the bottle open, "is probably the last Tarisian ale left in the galaxy." Carth stood and retrieved two glasses from a cabinet.

"No…." Atton breathed reverently.

"Yup," Carth said as he sat down. "Apparently Davik's compartment is better hidden than I thought. I figured if _I _had managed to find it, this stuff would have been long gone by now."

"Tarisian ale…" Atton hadn't had Tarisian ale in years! "How did you find the compartment?" he asked Carth.

"I like to think that the Force led me to it," Carth chuckled, "but it was probably just dumb luck."

"How so?" Atton asked, curious.

"Well, I was feeling particularly low and very angry. I had been officially kicked out of the cockpit and was hiding in the cargo hold. I happened to stub my boot toe on a floor panel and knocked it loose. It was strange, really; any other time after that if I went digging in that compartment it took quite a bit of work to get that panel loose, but that night it just popped right up." Carth poured them each a glass. "I imagine by now the brew has become pretty potent."

"Why were you hiding?" Atton took a sip of the ale, and it was beautiful.

Carth stared at his own glass and smiled wryly. "We had just escaped from the _Leviathan_ and I just found out that the woman I was in love with was a murdering, conquering Sith Lord who caused the death of my wife, the capture of my son by the Sith and the destruction of my entire planet. Getting drunk definitely seemed like a good idea at that moment." He took a drink of his own.

"That'd do it." Atton raised his glass in a salute. "But you forgave her. Why?"

Carth sighed. "I'd seen Morii do a lot of good things in our time together. She freed an entire planet from slavery, rescued captured prisoners, given a scumbag scam artist every chance in the galaxy, and she put herself on the line over and over again for her own personal sense of right and wrong. It wasn't always easy, either, I watched her struggle constantly. One of the hardest things is when a friend of the crew was on trial for murder. And…" He paused and took another drink. "She saved my son, something that I couldn't do."

Atton watched him quietly as he drank. "Even then, it couldn't have been easy…"

Carth laughed. "Nope, wasn't easy at all. You are looking at a man that has a very finely honed sense of revenge. I sought it for years against Karath," Atton recognized the Sith Admiral's name, "and finally got it on the _Leviathan_. In the end…" he sighed, "in the end I just couldn't hate her. I loved her. I love her now. Why else would I be going on this idiotic quest? Yeah, she'd done things, horrible things in her past, but so had I. Maybe not on the same scale, but by forgiving her, I could also forgive myself. And she was damned sexy." He looked up at Atton, eyes twinkling.

Atton threw back his head and laughed. "I believe you are the first person I've met to describe Revan that way. No one else would dare."

"Oh, it wasn't just me, trust me on that. She drew stares, attention wherever we went. She shouldn't have been attractive." Carth frowned in thought. "Her features were odd by themselves, but the whole picture…was amazing. She wasn't conventionally pretty even, but there was just something about her. Maybe it was that utter sense of self and confidence she projected, or maybe it was the way she swayed as she walked." Carth grinned up at Atton as he raised a disbelieving eyebrow in return. "But Beautiful could turn heads that's for sure."

"Beautiful?" Atton asked.

"Private joke," Carth answered in a tone that indicated he would say no more.

Atton let it slide and raised his glass. "Well then, a toast to beautiful Jedi."

Carth smiled and raised his glass in return.

* * *

A/N: Yay for reviews! Love Reviews! More Reviews! Ok, now that I'm done pimping myself thanks to everyone for your reviews. 

Dante-Revan: Well there is more in store, I don't want to give it away... but it's already written

Rhyska Naver: Thank you so much. The chapters do get longer, I can tell you 12 is probably one of the biggest I have finished. It's never as long at it seems at first because Word seems to spread it out so much more. Di and Atton still have some relationship building to do as well.

Lunatic Pandora: Well being that Carth is a bit of a control freak I always saw him as having some ship repair skills to make sure his babies were fixed right, but that's of course my personal opinion.

Facing: Weeeell... as for the KOTOR two love triangle, I already know how I want that to play out, but that's unfortunatly a loooooong way off. I really wanted to focus on the journey, but I promise that it won't end before they find their ladies. Atton? I have to confess I am definitly having the most fun writing him hee hee.


	8. Flight

A/N: I know, I know I am a bad, bad Fanfic author. I apologize for the lack of updates, I was having computer issues. I was also going to add this yesterday but the system didn't like me and gave me errors.

_This is a page break because the site hates me..._

Two hours and four bottles later:

Atton's arms were folded on the table with his chin resting in-between them as he glared at the bottle. He narrowed his eyes further to try and make the three visions of the bottle merge into one. Atton lifted a hand and poked at the bottle, missing on his first two tries. "Hey Carth…" Atton said absently.

Carth was across the table with his legs splayed out in front of him and his rear end half out of the chair. His head was tilted back over the top of the backrest as he stared at the ceiling and admired the way it spun lazily.

Atton got no response and said louder, "Carth!"

Carth's head jerked up and he looked over at the multiple Attons in confusion. "Wha?" Carth asked in irritation.

"Hey Carth…" Atton began again. Carth's head had flopped back over the backrest. "Whaddaya…whaddaya…whaddaya…suppose…" Atton lifted his glass and took a drink. "Whaddaya suppose…is the deal…with…pilotsh and Jedi?" Atton frowned for a moment as he remembered the Jedi currently in the back of the ship. "I mean girl Jedi!" he proclaimed loudly.

"Dunno…" Carth answered absently. "Thatsh…thatsh a good question…have to think…" Carth attempted to stand out of the chair but instead slid out of it to the side. Laying momentarily on the floor in confusion he then turned himself on his hands and knees and slowly proceeded to push himself up onto his feet, his backside high in the air.

Atton watched the bizarre performance in irritation. "Hey! Where you goin? Still got ale!" he waved at the bottle in front of him. "You can't go! Have to finishsh it!"

Carth weaved dangerously as he finally managed to stand. "Gotta take a leak." He more stumbled than walked until he reached the wall, which he patted affectionately while muttering "good girl" as he waited for the ship to stop swaying. He then leaned heavily against it while he slowly made his way to the 'fresher.

Atton meanwhile realized that Carth's glass was empty, which was a galactic tragedy in his opinion. He leaned over the table and stretched out his fingers to grasp the rim of his new buddy's glass and refill it. Sliding the glass over to him he could hear Carth singing something about a man and his cucumber while he was using the can. Atton grasped the neck of the bottle and felt a sense of pride that he had accomplished this on his first try. Carth wandered back out as Atton was pouring and headed for the table. Unfortunately Carth only made it about halfway before he stumbled and sat down hard in the middle of the floor. Atton snickered and Carth smiled back bemused.

"Well, how's about that?" Carth asked absently.

Atton pushed Carth's now full glass toward the end of the table closest to Carth and said, "Drink."

Carth tilted his head, "Kay…" He proceeded to crawl on hands and knees toward the table, not seeing the point in getting all the way off of the floor anymore. Carth came up to the table and raised his torso up, resting his forearms on the table as he kneeled next to it. He smiled at the glass absently as he admired the tiny little bubbles rising to the top of the golden brown liquid. Grabbing the glass he took a drink. "Atton…" Carth then belched loudly.

"Nice push!" Atton complimented Carth.

"Thanks…I…I figured it out," Carth nodded emphatically.

"Huh?" Atton asked smartly.

"I figured it out! Pilots…and Jedi…girl Jedi…and pilots…" Carth's voice trailed off.

Atton laid his head on the table and looked at the three Carths expectantly. "Oh yeah…? Whatsit?"

"It's…it's…the flight suits!" Carth proclaimed proudly. "We looks good in flights suits!"

Atton beamed, "Yeah…" then his face fell. "I don't…gots a slight fute…fight slute…you know…one of dems…" He seemed very disturbed by this.

"You should get one!" Carth encouraged as he punched Atton in the shoulder good naturedly. Atton proceeded to tip dangerously and Carth grabbed his jacket and yanked him back.

"Thanks…" Atton smiled widely at Carth.

"No prob…" Carth replied graciously and took another drink. "All…alls the Jedi want guys in flight suits!" he proclaimed adamantly. "Drives…drives em crazy!"

Atton stopped in mid drink and looked at Carth in shock. "Really?"

"Yup," Carth downed the last of his glass.

"All the…all the…Jedi?" Atton asked dubiously as he glanced toward Mical's current location.

"Yup!" Carth responded happily.

"Maybe I don't want a flight shuit!"

"Wha?" Carth asked; not noticing Atton's dark look toward the back of the ship.

"Never mind…" Atton waved his hand dramatically. Both men fell silent as Atton poured the last of the bottle into their glasses. "Damn…all gone," he said morosely as he closed one eye, and peered with the other through the opening of the neck into the empty bottle.

"More in the back," Carth responded.

"I'll get it! You shtay here," Atton said benevolently and waved his hand up and down. Atton slowly pushed himself out of the chair and rocked back and forth next to the table. A look of surprise crossed his face and he muttered "Uh oh…" and proceeded to fall onto the deckplates.

Carth watched this with surprise. "Hey Atton?" he asked, but Atton only let out a soft snore in response. Carth reached over and shook Atton's shoulder but got no reaction. "Lightweight," Carth commented and finished his glass. He realized that a blurry brown and yellow blob was standing in the doorway to the room and narrowed his eyes at it. The blob moved closer and turned into Mical. "Hiya Soldier!" Carth greeted happily. "Wanna glass?"

Mical's ash colored eyebrows were threatening to disappear into his hairline as he looked at Carth and then glanced down at Atton's unconscious form on the floor. "It appears I missed something?" Mical was a bit disturbed to see a highly decorated Admiral in the Republic Fleet completely blasted.

"Tarisian ale!" Carth explained.

"Where did it come from?" Mical was curious despite himself. Since the Sith destruction of Taris five years ago Tarisian ale had virtually disappeared.

"Courtesy of Davik Kang…the bastard." Carth muttered the last angrily.

"On second thought, I believe I am better off not knowing." Mical sighed, resigned. He then reached over to shake Atton's prostrate form. Atton merely snored louder in response. "I suppose I should get him into a bunk. The deck floor can't be very comfortable," Mical actually seemed a bit irritated.

"I'll help," Carth offered as he used the edge of the table to pull himself up.

"Er…that's quite alright Admiral, I believe I will do this on my own. Perhaps you should seek out your own bunk?" Mical had a feeling the Admiral would be more of a hindrance than a help in his present state.

"You sure?" Carth asked with blurry concern.

"Yes, I will get him to bed. Do you require…assistance as well?" he asked worriedly, obviously hoping not. Mical didn't think he could take helping this man who he held in such high esteem make his drunken way to his bunk.

"Nah…" Carth shook his head and stumbled. "A Telosian's never too drunk to find his way to bed." Carth snickered at this. Mical let the comment slide.

"Very well then Admiral, I shall see you in the morning." Mical rolled Atton over onto his back and used the man's arms to pull him into a sitting position. Atton mumbled something unintelligible in his sleep as Mical put his shoulder against Atton and used a small manipulation of the Force to lift Atton and position him over his shoulder. Atton was nearly as tall as Mical, making him a bit unwieldy and heavy. After the Padawan had his companion positioned he looked over and saw the Admiral stumbling down the hall toward the other crew quarters, singing a song that caused Mical to blush furiously. He had certainly heard songs like that before with his time in the service, but not from an officer that he so admired. Sighing he turned toward his and Atton's quarters.

_This is a page break becuase the site still hates me..._

Phoenix: I hope you don't like the hostility _too_ much, because I hope to have them get closer... uh but not slash closer, lol.

Dvana: Thank you! I love writing the interaction, so I'm glad you like reading it.

Rhyska: Again thank you! I'm glad it's fun, and hopefully this chapter was even funner, after there's more ale! Hmm, have to go back to the chapter and try to see if I did make a typo. Oh and Dustil... disappeared. Not even Carth knows what happened to him. Although I have a plan in my head, and plan on having Onasi Jr rear his angsty head later on... I'm a big forshadower, so I do try to explain all those ambiguious references I make lol.

Child: Aww... blushes I lurve witty banter as well. I have to admit the possibility of the three of these guys trying to work together struck me as some great comedic fodder. Plus I get to think about Carth, Atton and Di for hours...sigh lol

Lady Sara: Eeep! I promise they do get off Nar Shadda soon! I fell behind on my updates due to some internet difficulties, but it's coming, I swear! There's even an action sequence soon! Please don't hurt meeee! ;)


	9. Landing

Carth woke wishing he were dead. For a moment he wondered if he was, but he imagined being dead wouldn't feel so blasted awful. Groaning on the bunk he curled his knees up to his chest to try and abate some of his nausea. Unfortunately this made his head pound even worse till he thought it might actually explode. Carth lay there for several minutes battling his stomach. Finally winning he opened one eye, and wished he hadn't. He had forgotten to turn off the lights last night when he crawled into his bunk and the illumination was killing him. Carth groaned again and half opened the other eye, trying to adjust to the light.

Ever so slowly Carth started moving out of the bunk, glad now that Mical had insisted the Admiral have the quarters all to himself. Despite Carth's protests Mical had seemed to think that as an Admiral he deserved to have privacy, and had moved his gear into the bunks at the other end of the ship with Atton. Carth was not currently in any type of mood for company. Resisting the urge to vomit all over the deck plates, he painfully made his way over to one of his gear packs and dug through it slowly. After finally reaching the bottom Carth found what he was looking for and pulled out the stim. Injecting it he sighed in relief. He still felt awful, but now it only felt like one Ronto had ran over his head rather than a whole herd. "Thank you Canderous," Carth whispered softly. The nausea had almost disappeared and the headache was now bearable. Digging out another stim he rubbed his face and exited the sleeping quarters.

As Carth wandered into the hallway, the scent of caffa hit him and he groaned again. This time in pleasure. Resisting the urge to immediately grab a cup he instead headed to the other end of the ship where Atton most likely was. Reaching the other bunks Carth opened the door and found Atton curled up into a position than resembled Carth's recent one. Atton also cracked one bloodshot eye and glared at Carth.

"I hate you," Atton muttered at the man standing before him.

"I'll bet," Carth responded with a frown and rubbing his still aching head. "Here," he threw the stim at Atton and it landed next to his clutched stomach. "It'll help."

Atton grabbed greedily at the stim and injected it. As the chemicals worked through his system Atton closed his eyes and sighed in relief. "I owe you one Onasi."

"I smelled caffa on the way here as well," he told Atton.

"Thank the Force," Atton closed his eyes.

Carth turned and left the room to find the source of said caffa and wandered into the common room. Mical was sitting at a clean center table sipping tea out of a cup. Carth entered and immediately felt guilty. Not only had Mical got Atton to bed, he had cleaned up their mess from the night before and made them caffa. "You really didn't have to do all this Mical," Carth protested.

"It was no problem Admiral," Mical smiled up at him faintly.

"No really, you shouldn't have had to clean up, and the caffa…"

"Honestly Admiral, I didn't mind. How is Atton?" Mical took a sip of his tea.

"Better…" Carth went over to the small cooking counter and poured himself a cup of caffa.

"Yes he was quite…surly this morning." Mical smiled ironically.

Carth couldn't help but chuckle at the probable understatement of Mical's remark. "Judging by the way I felt when I first woke up, I can imagine." Carth took his cup and pulled up a chair. "Thanks, by the way."

"Again Admiral, there's no need," Mical smiled softly at him.

Carth had to admit this hero worship or whatever it was starting to make him a little uncomfortable. It was bad enough in the fleet. "Look Mical, I'm not in command of anything here. We're teammates, so it's Carth, okay?"

Mical looked down uncomfortable. Finally he looked up and met the Admiral's eyes. "Well then I suppose it is my turn to apologize Ad…Carth." Saying his name seemed to make the Padawan uncomfortable.

Carth sighed, "You can't do it, can you?" He smirked at the other man over his cup.

Mical laughed. "I suppose between my Jedi training and my time serving in the military…no?" He looked worriedly over at Carth. "I'm sorry Admiral."

Carth waved a hand in dismissal as Atton stumbled into the room. "Still hate me?" Carth asked.

"Gnuhhh," Atton groaned as he made his way to the caffa. Fumbling in the cupboard he pulled out a mug and proceeded to fill it. Atton then sat in an open chair, took a sip from his cup and sighed, his eyes closed in pleasure. "Between the stim and the caffa it has turned into only extreme dislike," he said as he opened his eyes and smirked at Carth.

Carth snorted in response. "I suppose we should get off this hellhole then?" he asked the other two.

"You've got my vote," Atton responded.

"Where should we head to first?" Mical asked.

"Well," Carth said as he took as sip, "Tatooine is closer, might as well make that our first stop. Deralia's out in the middle of nowhere. I suppose we should get moving, this isn't going to get any easier the longer we wait."

Atton frowned, "I'm in no condition to fly this tub anywhere. Not at least for five more cups."

"No problem, I was going to take us out anyway. If you fly like you fix I don't want you anywhere near the controls," Carth's mouth twisted into a mock smile.

Atton glared up at him. "About not hating you? I changed my mind." Carth's laugh echoed as he headed up to the cockpit to run a preflight before grabbing a shower while Mical took another sip to hide his smile.

To Carth's surprise the Astrogation computer was locked with a voice ID. Fortunately T3 could bypass it, but there were no programmed points before the Exile had taken over the ship. He had tried to get the astromech droid to unlock any previous coordinates but the little guy had been extremely stubborn. Carth had finally given up arguing with the droid after fifteen minutes and had it program in the coordinates to Tatooine. It wasn't like T3 to resist him like that, and Carth found the experience a little disconcerting. He wondered if she was responsible for both the voice lock and T3's stubbornness. Well there was nothing he could do about it. Ships he could fix, but droids were beyond him.

Carth started the blast off thrusters and smiled as the ship lifted off the ground smoothly. Yeah, he'd missed the Hawk, but it had always been Morii's ship. Carth began maneuvering through the Refugee Sector and climbed into the upper atmosphere as he cleared the buildings. He hadn't needed to even transmit for clearance; either coming or going as the local authorities didn't care who came and went through this part of the moon, for which Carth was grateful. He didn't really think anyone was following him, but he was a cautious man and felt it was better to be safe than sorry. There were elements in the Republic that would not want Revan found; they preferred her lost. Not that the Jedi Knight Nemorii Vohn's former identity was widely known, but it was known enough that she had endured a couple of assassination attempts before she left. One had come disturbing close to succeeding and Carth shuddered at the memory.

_Carth ran through the medical corridors still in uniform, heedless of decorum or courtesy. He had a few narrow misses with several personnel and one man said angrily, "Watch it buddy!" as Carth accidentally ran into his shoulder. Carth however didn't even stop to apologize; just spun around and kept running. He stopped as he reached the doors to the intensive ward, fear at what might be in there making him pause._ Please let her be alright please let her be alright please let her be alright _he thought desperately. Jolee's message had only indicated that she had been badly injured in an assassination attempt and for Carth to get his "military brass butt to the medical unit on Citadel."_

_Carth sucked in his breath, sucked up his courage and pushed open the door. Several medical personnel moved around briskly on errands and a few of them looked over at him in sideways glances, the sympathy on their faces causing his stomach to clench in terror._ Please let her be alright please let her be alright please let her be alright please let her be alright _**T**he words ran through his head dizzily as Carth headed to the back of the ward where he spotted Jolee walking toward him, once again wearing the Jedi robes he had abandoned so long ago on Kashyyyk. Jolee had put his personal differences with the Order aside because the old man felt they needed him after Malak had decimated their numbers, and Jolee had become Morii's constant champion among the Jedi; both in keeping her former identity hidden to avoid prosecution from numerous systems, as well as defending her relationship with Carth._

_Jolee was coming from a kolto tank with a body floating in it. Carth refused to look at the tank and instead focused on Jolee's approaching form. He couldn't look, not yet._

"_Carth," Jolee greeted the younger man and pulled him into a quick embrace._

"_Jolee, how…how bad is it?" Carth really didn't want to know._

_Jolee sighed and looked at Carth with pain filled eyes. "It's bad Carth." Carth's face hardened in fear and Jolee held up a hand. "Bah,she'll make it, she's too stubborn to die," he assured the new Admiral, "but this time it was close, too close." Jolee frowned in thought. "Whoever did this knew Jedi, knew Jedi weaknesses, and knew how to hunt them. Morii was damn lucky Carth. The only thing that saved her was her strength in the Force and sheer willpower. She managed to heal her wounds enough to drag herself back to one of those restoration outposts they're building and call for help. It'll probably be at least a month before she's fully recovered."_

_Carth swallowed nervously. "Can I see her?"_

"_Of course you can boy! But I should warn you, it looks worse than it is."_

_Carth nodded, "Okay," he said shakily as he ran a nervous hand through his hair. Jolee stepped aside and walked with him over to the kolto tank. As Carth approached the tank he had to work very hard to keep the shock off of his face. Morii was in a medical jumpsuit with a breathing mask attached to her nose and mouth. The first thing he noticed was Morii's hair. The hair on the left side appeared to have been burned away and the rest of it cut extremely short to treat her wounds. Carth thought briefly how she would hate that as the new length would cause the brown locks to curl wildly till it grew long enough to pull back. The burns on the side of Morii's head extended down to her cheek, cracked and peeling with the kolto treatment. Luckily it appeared her eye had been spared That the medics would have had a harder time repairing. The burns continued on her left shoulder and down her arm, torso and both legs. Several deep gouges intersected over her injured side, some looked to be caused by shrapnel, but others had the distinct appearance of blade marks. There were fiveparallel gouges on her stomach. Carth blanched at these They had the distinct mark of torture. _

_Carth approached the tank and stopped in front of it, pain etched on his features at her appearance. As if sensing him, Morii opened her eyes slowly. Moving thickly through the liquid, she lifted her undamaged hand and pressed her palm on the tank shell. Carth in turn lifted his left hand and matched his larger palm and fingers to hers through the glass. "Hey Beautiful," he whispered as he smiled sadly at her._

_Morii's pale blue eyes narrowed as she read his lips. He could almost hear her voice saying "liar," at his comment._

"_Would you prefer Gorgeous?" He quietly asked the old joke. Her eyes smiled at him softly, and then closed as her arm fell back to float gently in the kolto, as if the movement had exhausted her. Carth's hand stayed against the glass for a few moments before he let it fall sadly back to his side. Turning away he looked at Jolee._

Carth realized they had left Nar Shadaa's atmosphere as the light from various stars brightened in the now black sky. He adjusted course and prepared to access the hyperdrive when a shudder rocked the ship. "What the…?" Carth uttered in surprise as the ship slowed. Mical and Atton ran into the bridge behind Carth's seat.

"What's going on?" Atton asked.

"I don't know. We've been caught in some sort of tractor beam. Blast it! I can't break us free! Did you two make some enemies on NarShadaa you forgot mention?" Carth was frantically punching up information and trying to fluctuate engine velocity, but it only caused the shaking to become more violent. The ship was slowly spun around to face its captor.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Atton yelled as the other ship came into view.

"Atton, you recognize the ship?" Mical asked as he looked toward Atton.

"Unfortunately," Atton glared at the vessel; the ship had to be new, but the design was all too familiar. "It looks like Goto's looking for payback."


	10. Revenge Of The Gangster

A/N: As Mira would say: "Finally some action!" Big Thankees to JediMaster12 from kfm for the Beta, who keeps my punctuation fetish from getting out of hand, among various other duties.

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They armed for rancor; or in this case gangster, as Atton gave them a very brief history of his last encounter with Goto, which was before Mical had joined up with the Exile. Atton also informed them about Goto's army of droids that were most likely residing on his shiny new yacht. Carth had dug out his old gray armor that had originally been bought from the slightly shady rodian Suvam, who resided in the old abandoned Republic station above Yavin IV. Flipping the switches to activate the fluorescent blue power cells Carth had both his blasters holstered; a vibroblade strapped to his back and was ready to go. Mical had donned his fighting robes that were less bulky than his normal ones and allowed for faster movement. Atton had grabbed his own illegally modified blaster and had shoved grenades, detonators, and spikes anywhere he could find a space on his everyday gear. He also had a strange device that looked a lot like a datapad. The strange instrument had actually gone down the front of Atton's pants which caused both Carth and Mical to look at the other man rather strangely with raised eyebrows as they watched Atton arm himself.

"Don't ask," Atton muttered distractedly while shoving it into his trousers.

"I guess we should just be thankful it wasn't a grenade." Carth said with a smirk. Mical snickered at the comment and then looked faintly embarrassed for doing so.

They heard the docking clamps engage outside the ship. Carth and Atton grabbed their blasters and Mical's lightsaber flew into the palm of his left hand. Atton and Carth were hiding to one side of the loading ramp while Mical's back was to the wall on the other side. There were a few moments of tense waiting as the men listened to the sounds of someone or something trying to force the ramp down. Finally they heard the ramp begin to lower and Carth looked over at Mical both of their faces hard with anticipation. The ramp finished its decent and a set of hollow footsteps echoed on the metal. Carth nodded at Mical and the Padawan ignited his green lightsaber, spinning toward the entrance with weapon swinging. Carth and Atton came out behind Mical and fired a rapid succession of blaster shots. Four enormous droids stumbled back in surprise at the sudden onslaught. The machines recovered quickly however and started retuning fire at the trio. Mical's lightsaber blocked the majority of the shots while Atton and Carth dodged the few that escaped him. The green beam of energy cut through three of the droids and blaster fire took down the fourth.

There was no time to relax as there were five more of the heavy guard droids in the room beyond as well as three large back and gray floating orbs. With Mical in the lead they moved into room with weapons blazing. Realizing the number of opponents they were facing, the three formed a circle facing outward at their enemy. The Disciple's green blade hacked and slashed while Carth's duel blasters fired at blinding speed. Atton alternated between blaster fire from his right hand and tossing grenades at the enemy with his left. These droids however weren't going down as easily as the first ones due to the two maintenance droids circling in the background of the battle. As soon as any one of the men managed to inflict any serious damage, the smaller droids would come in and repair the attack droids.

"Atton!" Carth yelled to his right. "We need to take out those maintenance droids. Think you can get around these guys?"

"No problem!" Atton yelled back. Atton squatted down and executed a quick roll between two of the heavily armored droids before they could react. Coming out on the other side he took aim and with two shots took both the small white ball droids out. The guard droids recovered and turned around to now face their attention on Atton, who was standing alone and exposed. Mical moved in and sliced through the torsos of the two moving in on Atton's position while Carth split his attention between the other three and the black orbs, which were a lot tougher than they looked. Carth ducked down and to his right as one of the large spheres shot an arc of flame at him. Popping his head back up Carth could smell singed hair.

"Little help here guys!" he yelled back at them. No sooner than Carth had spoken the other two joined him on each side. Mical kicked out his leg and dropped into a crouch. His weapon swung out swung out in a graceful sideways arc, taking out a droid's legs in a blur of jade energy and white sparks while Carth fired over the Padawan's head and dropped the droid behind it. Atton had thrown a frag grenade and somehow managed to aim it directly into an open access panel of one of the floating balls; causing it to explode violently and in the process destroy the one next to it. The mechanical device let out a horrific screech as it fell to the floor.

The ragtag crew of the _Ebon Hawk_ was down to one armored droid and one floating one. Mical hacked and slashed at the last standing droid while Carth and Atton pummeled the last ball droid with a hail of blaster shots. The large armor droid fell to the ground in pieces and the last orb exploded in a shower of sparks shortly after. All three men crouched in the room momentarily alert for new threats in the abrupt silence. Slowly Atton and Carth lowered their pistols and Mical's lightsaber deactivated with a hiss and a snap.

"Well that was entirely too easy," Atton commented in a worried tone. Carth looked over at Atton in confusion. Atton opened his mouth to elaborate when he was interrupted by a voice coming out of the communication system.

"_Most impressive,"_ said the disembodied voice, _"but none the less futile."_ A soft hissing noise came out of several air vents accompanied by a green gas. The three fighters choked and fell to the floor unconscious.

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"_Well, this is an auspicious beginning Carth."_

_Carth was lying in a golden field on the Dantooine plains. He looked up at the source of the voice and saw Bastila standing over him in black robes with an eyebrow cocked in amusement. Carth picked himself up off the ground and frowned at her in annoyance. He swore Bastila wore those things just to irk him._

"_Yeah well you're the one who sent me to Nar Shaddaa Princess. You could have just said 'go to Deralia'." Carth proceeded to brush clumps of dirt and grass off of his black armor._

_Bastila rolled her lovely eyes skyward. "I really hate Canderous for that nickname, and you know why I sent you to Nar Shaddaa."_

"_You know what I really hate Bastila? I really hate all the Jedi ambiguity and mystery crap. None of you could outright answer a question if your lives depended on it. And if you weren't already dead I'd be sore tempted to clock both you and Jolee for all the crap you've put me through!" Carth was not in the mood to be lectured about getting caught with his metaphorical pants down. "So what do you want anyways? I take it you didn't just pay me a visit to tell me I screwed up?" he frowned at her expectantly._

_Bastila sighed and frowned back at him. "And do you know what I hate Carth? You're absolute lack of appreciation for all that I've done for you these past two years. A little gratitude wouldn't hurt." She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. She looked like Morii when she did that. He momentarily wondered who had picked up the gesture from whom._

"_Done for me?" Carth laughed in surprise. "What exactly have you done for me Bastila? Haunted me? Given me no answers and vague advice?" Carth waved his arms around wildly. "Do you see a light anywhere Bastila? Maybe you should move toward it!" Carth then crossed his arms and glared right back at her._

_Bastila sighed and threw her arms up in the air. She stared at him for a moment with her mouth twisted into a grimace. Finally she blew a stray strand of hair out of her eye sin resignation and said, "Believe it or not I did not come here to argue with you Carth I came here to warn you. This Goto is dangerous."_

"_Um, I noticed that. You're a little late for warnings in that department." Carth smirked._

"_You are an extraordinarily frustrating man, do you know that? I honestly don't know what Revan sees in you."_

"_And I don't like it when you call her that." It wasn't the name Carth hated; he had comes to terms with that, it was the tone Bastila said it in. It was a tone that implied Sith Lord, not Redeemed Jedi Knight._

"_It's one of her names," Bastila said haughtily as she stuck a hip out. "Regardless," she waved a hand as if dismissing the argument, "Goto could be a problem. He has his own agenda and it is…difficult to read. He is a danger to you, your companions, and most certainly to Revan and the Exile."_

"_So Ara Firestorm did go after Revan?" Carth asked._

_Bastila smiled slyly. "Yes, I thought that would have been fairly obvious, even to you." Carth glared at the insult but Bastila ignored the look. "Your search for Revan and the Jedi's search for the Exile are tied together."_

"_What about Atton?" Carth asked when she only mentioned Mical._

_Bastila merely smiled at him smugly. Her face then became more serious. "Be careful of this Goto Carth. Tell him nothing. I see many complications arising from his interference. He is a powerful enemy."_

"_Okay, got it. Anything else oh vague one?"_

"_It's time to wake up Carth," Bastila smiled and waved a hand in front of her in a gesture Carth had often see Jedi use when using the Force on the minds of others._

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Carth's eyes popped open instantaneously. He found himself lying on his left side on a deck floor staring at Mical's unconscious form. Somewhere from the other side of Mical came the sound of a low groan. Carth slowly sat up and found that the gas had caused his headache from this morning to return. Looking over Mical's body he saw Atton in the process of sitting up as well. "You okay?" he asked the other man.

Atton frowned at him. "Oh just dandy," he answered sarcastically while pressing the heel of his palm against his forehead. Evidently Carth's headache wasn't the only one's that had returned with a vengeance. Atton then glanced over Carth's shoulder and said some not very polite phrases as what he saw. Carth turned around and saw a force shield blocking the entrance to the small room. They were obviously in some sort of prison cell.

Mical chose this point to wake up as well. He also groaned as he sat up and looked back and forth at his cellmates. "Are you both alright?" he asked worriedly.

"Fine," Carth said shaking his head, and the pain caused him to instantly regret it.

"Oh yeah just great, considering we're in a cell with a force field. Hey Mical can I ask you something?"

Mical turned his head toward Atton, "Of course, what is it you need of me?"

"Now I want you to be honest," Atton said earnestly. "I can take it." Atton pushed the dark brown hair off of his forehead and held it pressed against the top of his skull. "Do I have 'Lock Me Up' laser burned on my forehead?" Mical rolled his eyes and Carth let out a single bark of laughter. "No seriously Mical, I can take it! Just tell me. I do, don't I? C'mon be a pal and just tell me the truth. Because everywhere I go people are locking me up! And I'd like to know if I'm sending out some sort of signal here!" Atton swung his free arm out from his side in entreaty.

Carth wasn't sure he understood the whole joke but chuckled anyway at the sarcasm and offense dripping from Atton. Traveling with these two never looked to be boring, that was for sure.

"This is not the time for jests Atton we have a serious problem to deal with." Mical frowned at Atton and picked himself up off the floor. Despite the scolding he held out a hand and helped Atton to his feet. Mical then turned to assist the Admiral but Carth had already picked himself up.

"So, now what?" Carth asked the other two men.

"_Hmm, not the quarry I expected, but interesting,"_ the voice echoed from behind Carth. He turned around and saw one of the black orb droids floating outside the cell, its one red optic locked menacingly on the prisoners. _"A Jedi, you again,"_ it said as it focused on Atton, _"and a Republic Admiral."_ The droid seemed surprised at Carth's presence. _"Tell me,"_ the device asked, _"where is the Exile?"_

"Suck space dust Goto," Atton spit with arms crossed defiantly over his chest.

"This is Goto?" Carth asked incredulously. He'd never heard of a gangster droid before.

"_As amusing as you are assassin,"_ Atton's head jerked back in shock at Goto's label, _"I'm not in the mood for entertainment. I am seeking the Exile, and I will retrieve the information by any… means… necessary."_ The last three words were said with slow enunciation. _"However I am most curious as to your presence in this Admiral Onasi."_

"How do you know who I am?" Carth asked with eyes narrowed at the droid.

"_You are hardly inconspicuous Admiral. In fact you are quite well known throughout Republic Space, and I make it a point to stay abreast of current events. In my line of business it is prudent to do so. So, the three of you are quite an odd troupe indeed. Given two of your party's previous associations… I wonder if this has something to do with Revan?"_

_How the hell did he know about Morii_? Carth wondered. Bastila's warning echoed through his head. "I'm on vacation," he smirked at the blood red droid eye.

"_Indeed…very well. I shall gain the information soon enough. In the meantime please enjoy my… hospitality."_ With that last sardonic comment the droid turned and floated off down the hall.

Carth turned and looked at Atton. "That's Goto?" the Admiral asked in disbelief.

Atton shrugged, "Sort of. No one's ever actually seen Goto, at least not in the flesh. He uses droids and holo projections for all of his dealings. Bet he's not even actually on the ship. Goto's not stupid, that's for sure. There are too many people gunning for him, which means he's cautious as well as being extremely dangerous." Atton stopped talking and started gazing around their cell in deep concentration, occasionally running his hands over a wall absently. He then looked up over his head and smiled an evil grin.

"Can you get us out of here?" Mical asked him.

"I think so, just a sec," Atton then began digging around in the front of his pants. "Luckily Goto missed this like I was counting on." Carth watched the bizarre dance with amusement as Atton shifted and shimmied with his hands down the front of his trousers while Mical's features were wearing an expression of mild horror. Atton's expression was one of intense concentration which made the scene all the more hilarious. It then transformed to a look of triumph as Atton found what he was looking for and began working it out of his tight fitting drawers. Atton pulled out the strange datapad-looking thing he had shoved down there earlier and looked up at the other two beaming as he held it up in his hand.

"Mical I need a boost." Atton gestured his head up at a panel in the ceiling.

"Um," the Disciple still seemed a bit unsettled by Atton's unconventional storage methods, "all right. Up there I take it?" he asked as he pointed at the panel in the ceiling.

"Yep," Atton was now digging around in his left boot and pulled out a small pocketknife.

"Got anything else useful hidden?" Carth couldn't help himself; in spite of everything he was impressed with Atton's ingenuity. _He's like a cranky, nastier, male version of Mission_, he thought.

"I'm a man of many skills," Atton responded proudly. Atton then stuck the datapad in his mouth as Mical got down on one knee. Atton carefully crawled onto the Jedi's shoulders while holding the closed folding knife in his left hand and Mical proceeded to stand slowly, lifting Atton up to the ceiling while keeping a grip on the other man's knees to keep him steadied. Atton took the knife and started prying at the ceiling panel, attempting to work it loose.

"What is that thing Atton?" Carth asked, curious.

"Mhss sa nuff."

"What?" Carth laughed.

Atton let out a muffled sound of triumph and Carth hurried over to Mical's side to help lower the panel quietly to the floor. Mical weaved under the weight shift and this time Atton's garbled noise was one of protest. As Mical regained his balance Atton tossed the knife down to Carth which he caught and pocketed.

"Would you hold still Mical? It's hard enough to do this without you stumbling around like a drunken cannock." Atton complained after he took the datapad out of his mouth.

Mical's face was red with exertion. "Well…you are rather heavy…" his voice was irritated.

"Well use the Force or something…damn no port. Onasi, take this and hand me back that knife." Atton held the datapad down to Carth.

"I am saving my reserves for later when we will no doubt have to fight our way off of this ship!" Mical protested.

"Well then hold still!" Atton instructed as he took the knife from Carth's outstretched hand.

"So Atton, what is that thing and what are you going to do with it?" Carth asked again as he watched the other man slice and strip some wires in the ceiling.

"This…" he started distractedly as he worked, "is the best haul I ever got off a pazaak table. You ever heard of ICE Breakers?"

"Sure," Carth answered as Atton again sent the knife down and held out his hand toward Carth for the pad. "They can hack into any computer system," Carth started. "One time use from what I understand, and don't you need a terminal to use them?"

"Normally," Atton beamed fondly at the device in his hand, and then opened a small port in the side and extended a small probe with a retractable wire attached. "This little beauty though is different…alright Mical," he tapped the Padawan on the top of the head which caused Mical to roll his eyes, "Set me down."

"Thank the Force," Mical grunted and gingerly lowered himself onto one knee and Atton climbed off. The port infiltrator from Atton's toy was connected to a couple of wires in the ceiling panel. One long wire trailed down into the datapad and Atton began punching information up on its screen.

"This baby," he explained as he worked, "is a lot like an ICE breaker in that it can hack into any system, but the beauty part is it has infinite uses as well…" he frowned at something on the screen, "as well as having the ability to infiltrate networks without needing a terminal." Atton smacked the pad absently as he frowned. "Although a terminal would make this a lot easier. Ah, ha!" he said triumphantly.

Carth and Mical had crowded on either side of Atton to watch as he worked, but neither of them could interpret the codes scrolling across the screen.

"What can you access?" Carth asked.

"You name it, I got it," Atton smiled at the device fondly like a new father. "Security, ship functions, and hmmm," Atton's eyebrows raised and then his face sharpened into a devious smile, "and personal files…"

"Let's just concentrate on getting out of here first." Mical said worriedly.

"Ah, won't take but a minute Mical…and downloaded." Atton shrugged at Mical. "If nothing else it should make some interesting reading once I break the encryption." He beamed. Mical closed his eyes and had the distinct appearance of someone reciting the Jedi code silently to himself.

"What about the Hawk?" Carth asked impatiently.

"Uh, that's the bad news, but on the bright side all our gear is right outside the door." Atton gave a cheery smile

Carth rolled his eyes. "The ship?"

"Other side of the yacht, with lots of droids in-between."

"Can't you shut them down?" Carth asked impatiently.

Atton gave Carth a condescending look. "Yeah if you want Goto to know right away we've escaped. Me, I'm going for something a bit less 'hey lookee here!' Shutting that big of a system down will definitely get his attention."

"We don't need sarcasm Rand, we need solutions." Carth glared.

"How about sarcasm with solutions?"

"Atton would you please just tell us what you have in mind," even Mical appeared to be losing his considerable patience.

"Look, I can't shut down too many systems without Goto noticing. I can however reroute some of the monitoring systems so he won't know what's going on in parts of the ship, parts of the ship we need to get through. Of course that still means we have to fight our way through the droids, and take them out before they can broadcast some sort of warning."

"So fast and dirty," Carth proposed.

"Yep, that's the idea." Atton smirked and Carth felt an eager smile of his own growing. He'd definitely been sitting in a command chair too long.

"I believe that is the best idea," Mical nodded. "Goto won't notice that you are shutting down some of his systems?"

"No, not if I don't do them all at once. I'll just loop the feed so as long as he's not paying close attention he won't even know he's getting repeat info over and over, as long as we move fast. The problem," Atton looked back and forth at the other two, "is Goto learned his lesson from my last visit and there aren't any other terminals to access from here to the ship. So I'm going to have to program the systems right now and have them shut off on a timer. But as long as we don't go too fast through the rooms," Atton shrugged, "it shouldn't be a problem."

"Well," Carth said, "shut down that field and let's get to it."

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Lady Sara: Whew! wipes brow :D I loved writing the drunk sequence, I was chuckling the whole time, although it had a few dark undertones, Carth needing to get drunk to deal with being back on the ship and all. Oh and HK yeah he's in the next chapter, so he still has a part to play. I don't know if Goto hates the Hawk, he's just got a beef with the exile, after all she did "kill" him on Malachor, and with his nifty listening network he would have known the Hawk was back on NarShadda, at least that's the way I saw it when I wrote this.

Lunatic: Darth Carth... I love that phrase as well, it makes me giggle everytime to say it out loud. Atton is Force sensitive, but in this alti-verse he turned down the Exile's offer to train him. Part of it is that my Atton just wasn't ready to take on something like that, and part of it is because the first time I played through TSL the only one I could make a Jedi was Di as I was still trying to figure out the influence system, so that's what I went with. Carth Force Sensitive... well I definitely think you can make a case for it from events in the game. Let me just say that here he's... unique.

Rhyska: Thanks, I actually had to figure out some way to get them over the hangover fast since Goto was coming, hence the stims. Leave it to Candalore to have the ultimate hangover remedy. As for the Sith assassins... yes and no (Mwhahahaha!) DS points gained.

Child: Yeah and it only gets worse from here on out, but it's not very entertaing if they Gary-Stu their way out of everything lol, I'm trying very hard to avoid the Mary/Gary trap. I think my Rev frankly would have laughed her booty off, my Exile on the other hand... I'm not sure yet... some of her personality traits are still being flushed out in my head. So far she's even more screwed up mentally than Revan. Loads and loads of angst with these people!


	11. Escape

All three men were breathing heavily and sweat streamed down their bodies. They had been through three rooms so far and barely made it through the last one in their allotted time frame. Carth was definitely feeling like the old man, current age notwithstanding. The escapees were also sporting minor cuts and blast burns as well. Mical was trying to conserve his reserves for battle and they hadn't had the foresight to bring more than a few medpacs, which were being saved for emergencies.

Mical huffed and pulled out the tunic sticking to his chest. Carth envied the Jedi the ability. Carth could feel his own perspiration running in rivers under his armor, making him hot and sticky. "Atton," Carth panted, "how many more rooms?"

Atton had his back to a wall, bent slightly over with his left hand on his thigh while his right clutched his pistol. His thin white shirt was soaked. "Just two more, pure pazaak." He grinned rakishly at the other two men. Mical let out a groan at Atton's statement. "What?" Atton asked a bit sheepishly. Mical waved a dismissal back at the rouge. Atton looked down and checked his chronometer. "Okay guys, times up." They had just enough time for a breather, and it looked like it was back to the battle.

"Somehow I think it's too much to hope that there'll be less droids in the next room," Carth said dejectedly.

"Nope, there's more," Atton breathed. "We'd better move." He gave the others a serious look. Mical once again activated his blade as Atton shoved himself off of the wall. Carth adjusted his grip on his blasters and hunched on the same side of the door next to Atton. The timer Atton had programmed kicked in and the doors hissed open. Atton tossed an ion grenade into the room and ducked back around the doorjamb next to Carth. After a few seconds an explosion ripped through the room and the whining of protesting machinery reached their ears. Mical's face tightened and he swung around, smoothly swinging his weapon to block the blaster fire aimed coming their way from the remaining ten assault droids.

"At least there's none of those damn fat boys," Carth commented to one side at Atton on the lack of orb droids as they fell in behind Mical to provide cover fire. The large spheres didn't look like they were designed for combat but they had been tougher that the armor droids to take down. Mical hacked and slashed his way through the front lines while Atton and Carth took a position on either side.

A blaster bolt hit Mical in the thigh from a droid's last spasm and he let out a small cry of pain as he momentarily lost his footing. The sound of his injury distracted Carth's attention for an instant, but it was all one of the droids needed to hit Carth full on the chest with a sonic blast. Carth flew backwards into the far wall, adjusting his body at the last instant to take the brunt of the impact with his back. Carth let out an involuntary grunt as the air was pushed out of his lungs but managed to keep the back of his skull from smacking into the metal sheeting of the wall. That was going to leave a hell of a bruise though. Carth recovered in time to see one of the droid's claw-like hands coming directly for his face. Hard**-**earned survival instincts kicked in and Carth fell to the side as the droid's hand punched though the bulkhead in the spot where his head had just been. Pushing away the image of what that would have done to his face Carth raised both of his blasters and began pulling the triggers furiously. His aim was on and he completely fried the droid's controls. The attacker sparked brilliantly and fell forward right on top of Carth's prostrate form.

Atton saw the attack droid score a hit on Carth and trot after the man's flying form to finish the job but had no attention to spare. Atton continued firing his pistol into the droid grouping while Mical recovered from the hit to his leg and resumed his assault. Mical bisected a droid in through the midsection and was on another before the two halves hit the floor. Atton kept firing and hit the motor controls of another, causing the droid froze in place.

"Six to go!" Atton yelled to Mical next to him.

Carth had managed to crawl out from under the droid who attacked him and came up on Mical's other side. Going for speed rather than accuracy Carth fired repeatedly at the enemy. Seeing a droid stumble he took the advantage and sent out a sidekickwith his right leg. The reinforced boot crunched into the droid's already damaged chest and caved it in, destroying the internal circuitry. The droid screeched and fell backwards. Mical had managed to drop his opponent and moved onto a third. Atton was concentrating on the droid in front of him and missed the one that came after his left side. The claw-like appendage ripped through the top of Atton's bicep and he yelped in pain, fell to one knee and clutched at his arm. Mical and Carth saw him go down and both concentrated their attack on the droid to Atton's side. The metal hulk tipped backward as its mechanisms whined in protest. Mical flipped his lightsaber into a downward position and he stabbed into the droid chassis and finished it off. Atton had picked himself back up onto his feet and the trio made short work of the last two droids.

Panting, Carth winced as he dropped his arms and his back made a spasm in complaint. "How long?" he asked Atton.

Atton winced as he lifted his left arm to look at his chronometer. "We got about a minute. Shavit that hurt!"

"Let me see," Mical moved over to Atton's side with a slight limp.

Atton waved him off with his blaster hand. "Ah, it's just a scratch…ow!" Mical was poking at the wound.

"You have some muscle damage," Mical frowned at the profusely bleeding injury. "I should probably take care of it now."

"You got enough juice left for that?"

Mical paused in his assessment and looked into Atton's eyes.

"That's what I thought," Atton waved his good arm again. "I'll be okay, we've only got one more room to go and then it's smooth flying right?" his attempt at a grin turned into a grimace.

Carth came up next to him. "Here," he handed Atton one of their few medpacs. Mical took it out of Atton's palm and injected it into his shoulder. Carth slapped Atton's good shoulder. "Like you said, we've still got one more room to go." Carth gave the other man a half smile.

"That should keep any damage to a minimum until we can escape, but try not to use that arm unless you have to," Mical instructed.

Atton's chronometer beeped. "Time to go," he told the other two. All three men moved into position on the sides of the last door and waited for the timer to open it. Atton pulled the last of his grenades and kissed it theatrically as the doors slid apart. He crouched low and rolled the grenade into the room, ducking back behind the safety of the wall. They waited silently for the grenade to explode. After several moments of silence Mical and Carth looked at Atton quizzically. Atton looked back at them and shrugged, wincing at the sudden reminder of his shoulder injury.

"Maybe it was a dud?" he asked the other two men.

"Damn, no time! Hopefully our backup plan is still in effect. Let's go guys," Carth scowled while pushing a button on his armor and then jerked his head at Mical, indicating it was time to attack. The corners of Mical's mouth pulled down in determination and he lit his lightsaber. "This is probably going to get ugly," Carth told them.

And it did, very quickly. There had to be at least twenty droids in the room containing the airlock to the Ebon Hawk. They fought with renewed energy as their goal lay at the other end of the room. The Disciple was a blur of brown robes and green light as he sped up his reflexes using the Force. Three armored droids had already fallen. Carth had two of the orb droids tag teaming an attack on him. He desperately weaved and bobbed their fire, retuning shots of his own. His armor was too heavy to allow him to dodge them all, and he ignored the pain blossoming at various parts of his body where they hit. Atton was less encumbered than the Admiral but working with one arm. He fired off occasional shots while rolling, jumping, and ducking fire from the droids. Atton felt rather than heard a floating droid move up behind him as a battle droid came at him from the front. Atton smiled and waited for a droid to fire. Sensing the one in front of him powering up its weapon he dropped to the floor. The high-powered blaster shot sailed barely an inch over his head as Atton fell and hit the deck. Still lying on the ground he fired into the assault droid's face and destroyed it.

Carth had dropped his third droid when it finally happened. T3 had finally come through as a rippling ionic emission shimmered through the air and six of the droids in the room shook and seized as the effect hit them. Sparks flew from various joints as the machines fell over. The airlock hatch opened and heavy blaster rifle fire appeared emitting from the end of HK-47's gun. The assassin droid was gleefully throwing insults such as "take that minions of the Fat One," at Goto's army as it shot them. The three men renewed their assault on the much smaller numbers. Droid limbs and parts flew everywhere as they finished off the five remaining droids. Carth looked over at HK.

"What took you so damn long?" he yelled at the droid.

"Irritated Statement: Due to the nature of the shut down you initiated, the astromech droid and I had to perform a complete diagnostic once you sent the signal to reactivate us. Complaint: If you had activated me sooner I would have been able to enjoy more of the carnage."

Before the Hawk had been boarded, it had been decided to lock the two droids in one of the smuggling compartments of the ship. They had been completely shut down to avoid detection by Goto's sensors, only to be reactivated from a signal from Carth's comm. If things went bad the plan had been for their droids to rescue them. If they could make it to the ship on their own, T3 was to get the Ebon Hawk ready for a quick departure.

"No time!" Atton yelled waving his good arm as Carth opened his mouth to tell the droid off. "Goto's going to notice at any minute that the Hawk's powering up!"

"Right, let's get the hell outta here." Mical nodded at Carth's instruction and all three men moved toward their ship. As soon as they boarded the threesome and droid made a beeline for the cockpit. They found T3 by the navicomputer whistling in distress and irritation. Atton made for the pilot's chair but Carth pushed him out of the way and over to the copilot seat. Atton shot Carth a dirty look but complied as he seated himself. Mical hovered anxiously in the background. Carth was furiously punching up systems and swore at what he saw.

"T3, get those docking clamps off us!"

The droid screeched and bleated at Carth rudely.

"Well figure out a way to bypass it!" he yelled at the droid. "We need to leave… _now_!"

T3 let out a string of beeps and bwoops that sounded highly uncomplimentary. Two small explosions came from either side of the hull as the ship was released and floated next to Goto's yacht. Carth punched up the thrusters and sped away from the larger ship. Laser cannons began firing at the ship. "Shields up!" Carth roared at Atton.

Carth was pulling every trick he knew to avoid the fire and Mical felt a little queasy as the ship flipped and rolled. The hull of the Hawk vibrated and shook with the hits that Goto's weapons were scoring. Atton was working the secondary systems and diverting power to the shield generators.

"T3, get us out of here," Atton yelled. The droid plugged into the navigational computer and began calculating hyperspace coordinates. Carth continued to flip the ship in evasive maneuvers while Atton compensated for the strain it was putting on the hull. Mical wisely stayed out of the way and concentrated on mastering his stomach. The astromech droid let a triumphant "breet deet dweet!" and the Ebon Hawk jumped into hyperspace.

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A/N: As always thanks to JediMaster12 from KFM for the beta, who makes my stuff better than it could possibly be without her, and who is never without a kind word. Also thanks to everyone who left me reviews, that more than anything keeps my morivated to keep up with all of this and not drop it because of all the other damn story Gizkas hopping around my place. This place is getting worse than the Hawk. Hopefully I did I good enough job to keep the action junkies happy.

Lady Sara: You sound like me, I've lost count of how many times I've played that thing, usually I keep starting games over because I find a new mod and must play with it like a shiny new toy. Oh, as for what happens next I'm not tellin... (whistles innocently)

Child: I loves the wangst! A partial explanation of Carth's dreams is coming up in Chapt 15, which I just finished.

Rhyska: It's a good thing I wasn't drinking milk when I read this because it would have squirted out my nose. You just gave me a mental image of DS Bastila waving a sparkly wand and putting Carth in a silver flowing dress... it's not that kinda fic! lol. Yeah poor Atton, le sigh, that man is constantly getting put in the slammer, I've decided it's bad karma lol.

Crimson: Thank You for the nice compliment. I will I promise. Actually I already did if you're reading this lol.


	12. Traveling

Carth sat in the cockpit while Mical tended to Atton's shoulder. The Padawan had tried to get Carth to go to the med bay as well, but Carth refused to leave the cockpit unattended until he was sure that Goto wasn't going to make a second appearance. Since Atton's injuries were more severe Carth sent the other man off with Mical.

Carth shifted uncomfortably in his chair, feeling hot and sticky. He was still in his battle armor and wanted nothing more than to peel it off and get into the shower. T3 came rolling into the cockpit and chirped a greeting at Carth.

"Find anything?" he asked the droid. The droid made a series of noises.

"Hmm, that's funny. I thought for sure we'd have at least one tracking device on us. Keep an ear out, okay?"

The droid gave a retort at this comment and Carth smiled.

"You know what I mean," he told the droid. T3 tweeted and rolled rapidly out of the cockpit and bumped into Atton coming the other way.

"Ouch! Watch it will you? That was my foot." Atton protested.

The astromech made some rude sounds and rolled off.

"I hate that thing," Atton muttered as he entered the cockpit. He came up to stand behind Carth. "Mical wants you to get your butt to the med bay so he can check you over," he told Carth.

Carth raised an eyebrow. "Is that what he said?"

Atton smirked. "Well, yeah. Not in so many words but that's the general gist of it. I can take it from here."

Carth debated arguing. He was still worried that Goto had another surprise up his sleeve. _Quit being paranoid flyboy_. Carth jumped at the voice in his head. Yeah, that's just what she'd tell him. Sighing he rose from the chair and moved around. "Comm me if there's any problems."

Atton scowled and waved him off. "I do know how to fly this thing you know."

Carth gave Atton a knowing look. "Really? From what I hear you've crashed this ship more than you've actually flown it."

"Hey!" Atton protested angrily. "Those weren't my fault!"

Carth smirked at the door as he looked back at Atton. "Well I suppose you're still here, that's something. Any landing you can walk away from is a good one, right?" and with that parting shot Carth left the room.

Carth made his way to the med bay slowly. He realized as he moved how badly he was hurting. Carth didn't want to imagine what his back and chest looked like after the abuse they'd taken. As he walked into the med bay Mical looked up. "Ah Admiral, could you please remove your armor?"

Carth gratefully started slowly taking it off, and left it in a pile in the corner. He had on black pants and a thin black shirt underneath. Wrinkling his nose he pulled at the front of it. Yeah, he definitely needed a shower. "How's the leg Mical?" Carth looked up and asked.

"Oh, fine Admiral," Mical smiled. "Thank you for asking. Would you please remove your shirt as well? I saw you take at least a few blasts there."

Carth started to pull the shirt over his head to add to the pile. He winced at the shooting pain this caused and said, "You're not going to make me strip to my skivvies are you?" he asked Mical hopefully.

Mical let a small smile slip at that comment. "No, I don't believe that will be necessary. Unless you were injured below the belt?" he asked.

"Nope, mostly it's my back that's killing me." Carth made a painful face as he lowered his arms and gave a faint shiver as the air hit damp skin. Carth then sat on the bay bed with his back to Mical.

Mical was glad the Admiral's back was to him as he winced in sympathy for Carth's bruises. A brilliant colored pattern was beginning to spread across his shoulder blades, up onto his shoulders, and down the rest of his back. The injury was a nasty black, blue and purple, with bright green and yellow coloring at the edges. Mical turned to retrieve a scanning instrument from on of the lab cupboards. "You should have come to me sooner Admiral. You could have fractured ribs or internal bleeding." He rebuked gently as he began examining Carth's internal systems.

"It's not that bad Mical. I've broken ribs before; I would have known if I did it again. Just hurts like a bastard." Carth let out an involuntary hiss as Mical probed two of his fingers under a rib and concentrated.

"Nevertheless you should have received treatment before now. You do have a hairline fracture by the way. You're lucky none of your organs were damaged."

"Really? A fracture? Hmm, can't believe I missed that…ouch! Dammit Mical!" Carth squirmed involuntarily.

"I do apologize Admiral," Mical's response was distracted as he let off the pressure on Carth's rib and pulled a heavy-duty med pack from a drawer. "This should alleviate the pain and speed the healing. I would do it myself but I am still not fully recovered…"

Carth waved a hand in dismissal. "Don't worry about it. As it is it's been awhile since I've had a Jedi around to heal every bruise." Carth fell silent at the reminder of Morii.

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"_Carth I can't believe you let this go so long!" Morii scolded the man seated in front of her on the med bay bed._

"_It's just… a scratch… ouch! Dammit Beautiful quit poking at it!" Carth was sitting on the med bay bed shirtless and cold while Morii had him lift his arm over his head so she could examine Carth's side._

"_It is not just a scratch!" Morii retorted. "It is a nice deep slice from a Sith dagger and now it's infected you idiot!" Carth, Morii and Bastila had run into some more of Malak's Dark Jedi thugs three days ago by the swoop track in Anchorhead. Carth had gotten a lucky shot off with one of his blasters and shattered one of the Sith's lightsabers. The Sith had become severely pissed off after that and drew a wicked looking dagger from one of his boots. He came at Carth swinging like a professional knife fighter and had managed to get a stab through Carth's armor. The strike left a nasty gash on the left side of Carth's torso before he was able to take the other man down._

"_I am not an idiot!" Carth protested. "And it's not infected I put kolto on it!" However Carth had noticed that the pain was getting worse, not better the past few days, and while he couldn't see the injury very well, he had noticed the bright red streaks emanating from the stab wound. At first he was able to compensate with his innate ambidextrousness, but Carth had become worried today when the pain shot up every time he took a breath. He had originally wandered into the med bay looking for Jolee, but instead found Morii. She had of course badgered Carth until he confessed to the wound and then promptly shoved him onto the bed._

_Morii sighed in irritation. "Carth the Sith put poisons on their melee weapons. Kolto isn't going to do you any good. We either need a specific antidote or you need a Force healing." She blew up at her two stay hairs in irritation. "And now Jolee's gone off into town somewhere and I'm not nearly as good at this as he is." Morii then gave Carth a dirty look. "If you would have said something right after it happened it would be taken care of already."_

"_How do you know the Sith put poison on their knives?" Carth asked a bit petulantly, which made him feel even more foolish. He then began to pout. The truth was Carth didn't want it to seem like he wasn't pulling his weight. If Carth was being honest with himself he still felt out of his league, and he wanted to make sure that he wasn't holding any of them up, especially the Jedi._

"_I… I don't know…" Morii admitted in confusion and then shrugged. "Someone at the enclave must have mentioned it." Morii then gave a small laugh, "Frankly most of my training just seems like one big blur. Everything went so fast that sometimes I just remember something, but I don't remember learning it." Morii's brow furrowed and she looked very disturbed. She turned her attention directly on Carth. "Carth, can I ask you something?"_

_Carth gave her a teasing grin, "I don't know, usually when our conversations start like that you're going to ask me something I don't like."_

_Morii grinned back at him, "Relax… I just wanted to ask, how badly was I hurt after our escape pod crashed? I think I might be having some memory problems."_

_Carth's face dropped the grin as he looked directly into her eyes. He was actually surprised it hadn't come up before now. "Uh, you almost died Morii," Carth rubbed the back of his neck, trying to dispel some of his discomfort. He had thought he was going to lose her for a while. Even though he knew nothing about Morii at that point except she was tough enough to fight her way through all of those Sith to the escape pods, Carth had been terrified she would die. For no other reason than he had seen so many troops on the _Spire_ die, and he didn't think he could take losing the one person he had actually managed to save from the doomed ship. Carth remembered the feeling of utter helplessness he had felt as he watched soldier after soldier go down on the security system, unable to do anything else as he had been immediately trapped in the escape pod bay by the Sith after getting Bastila away. Carth let out a sigh, "I had to actually go out and find a doctor; I didn't think you were going to make it. Apparently you were bleeding into your skull. You remember Zelka?" Carth asked. Morii gave a single nod. "Well the reason he knew me was I found him when I was looking for someone to treat you. It took him all of two minutes to figure out we were with the Republic, but he never hesitated. I took him back to the apartment, we couldn't move you…" he explained. "If it hadn't been for Zelka, I'm not sure you would have made it."_

_Morii bit her lip as she gave him a sympathetic look. Finally she placed one hand on his shoulder and tilted her head, smiling gently. "Then it really was my lucky day when I ended up in that pod with you."_

_Carth picked up her hand and gave the palm a kiss, "Maybe it was lucky for both of us," he said in a soft voice. Morii's grin widened. Carth gave a gentle tug to her hand and brought her closer. Morii's face turned a bit devious as he began to pull her down to him._

"_Hmph! If you two are going to do that kind of stuff kindly take it elsewhere. This is a sterile environment." They turned to look at the door to see Jolee standing in it with arms crossed over his chest, attempting to look stern. The effect was spoiled by the twitching at the corners of the old man's mouth. Morii grinned at the old man, but Carth looked a bit embarrassed as he waited for a personal attachment and Jedi equals bad lecture. Surprisingly it never came._

"_Um, we'll just be going," Carth started moving off the bed, but Morii promptly pushed him back down. "Ouch!" _

"_Oh no you don't," Morii said in a sever tone. She then turned to Jolee and proceeded to explain about Carth's wound._

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Carth had found that memories of Morii and his last time on the Hawk had been increasing in frequency lately. Not surprising he supposed, but it was unnerving after he had spent the last four and a half years trying not to think too much about her. It was just too damn painful.

Politely ignoring Carth's mental anguish Mical instructed, "Try to not exert yourself for the next couple of days." He injected the med pack into his patient's back and handed him a jar. "Here's a salve for those blaster burns as well. That armor of yours is amazing. You're barely scorched."

Carth sighed in relief as the kolto spread through his system. "Yeah it was expensive too, but worth every credit." In answer to Mical's instructions he responded, "Barring homicidal gangsters I think I should be able to keep out of trouble though." Mical let out a low snort. It made Carth happy that he was starting to relax a bit around him. "Mical, can I ask you something?"

"Of course Admiral, anything."

"Why did Goto call Atton an assassin?" Carth hopped off the medical bed and retrieved his fallen shirt. He made a painful face as he put it back on, but noticed the pain had lessened considerably.

"I…do not know." Mical appeared confused as well. "I'm afraid I don't know much about Atton's history before he joined the Exile's quest." This answer didn't satisfy Carth in the least and it must have shown on his face because Mical added, "I have found him to be completely trustworthy in our time together, if a bit sarcastic."

Carth chuckled, "Yeah I noticed that too."

"I would recommend broaching the subject cautiously, if you chose to do so. Atton can be quite prickly about his personal life."

Carth rubbed his stubble worriedly, tact was not one of his strengths. "I'll keep that in mind." He then left the med bay. Deciding he needed food more than a shower at present Carth headed into the common room to grab something to eat, deep in thought. Goto's comment had perturbed him and Mical's lack of knowledge about Atton even more so. Carth didn't like the idea of traveling with someone who might have a dangerous past that he was completely ignorant of. He didn't really know Atton at all. At least with Mical Carth had seen his service record and knew something of the Padawan's past. Carth couldn't help but let out a snort at this thought. _Yeah Onasi, we all know how great a source of info service records are_. Last time he ended up on a mission with an unknown person, he'd had her service record and she turned out to be the former Dark Lord. Of course that hadn't worked out so bad. Not that anything remotely like that would happen with the annoying man currently in the front of the ship, but still Carth thought he shouldn't be so quick to judge. Goto had called Atton an assassin though. Of course he could have been a merc or bounty hunter, they often were labeled as such, deservedly or not. Still, there was something dangerous about Atton; Carth didn't need Jedi senses to tell him that.

Carth was getting nowhere with this train of thought and was making himself more paranoid than normal, if that was possible. Still, most times his paranoia was spot on and he'd learned to at least listen to it. Sighing, he pulled out his now cooked food and dug in. Carth still had plenty of contacts in the fleet that he could have do some digging for him.

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The Ebon Hawk was comfortably cruising along in hyperspace without any sign of the gangster Goto. However they had a new problem.

"Well, apparently the turret system controls as well as most of the external sensors are fried. Some of our maneuvering thrusters are about ready to go out as well." Atton was briefing the other two men in the common room the next day of what T3 had recently informed him. When Carth had told T3 to get them out of the docking clamps the droid had blown several systems to disengage the locks. That combined with the fire they had taken from Goto's ship had caused considerable damage. While it had been necessary, they were now facing the consequences.

"It doesn't appear to be affecting the hyperdrive though," Carth scratched a stubbly cheek. "We should be able to get parts and fix everything on Tatooine."

"Uh, that's a bit of a problem. You do realize that Czerka's no longer running things on Tatooine?" Atton asked hesitantly.

"What happened to Czerka?" Carth asked.

"They've pretty much pulled out. I think there may still be a small store owned by them, but…I'm honestly not sure if that's even there. Their mining operations however have dried up."

"So why exactly is this a problem Atton? Surely there are still some ship repair services, even if they are independently owned." Mical asked.

"Okay, most of this is trader and smuggler scuttlebutt, but from what I understand Tatooine has turned into no man's land. Smugglers, mercs, traders, gangsters, Hutts, the Exchange, the place has gone into total anarchy. It may not be so easy to find someone who'll take Republic credits, they're too easy to trace. I'm betting that with the lack of central government most transactions are done in trade, especially illegal ones like spice and slaves. I don't know about you all but I haven't seen any spice or slaves running around the cargo hold." Atton's long face brightened. "We could sell the droids!" he suggested happily.

"Suggestion: Or we could sell the Pilot Meatbag. He did state that slavery is most likely an acceptable currency. After all my skills are much more valuable and the Republic Meatbag can pilot the ship. Pleading Query: Please may we exchange him for goods and services Republic Meatbag?"

Carth valiantly restrained himself from laughing out loud at the look on Atton's face.

"Watch it you psychotic scrap heap!" Atton yelled and pointed at HK. "You've got to recharge sometime!"

"Mocking Observation: If you, of all sentients were able to deactivate me then I would consider my continued existence futile anyways."

"Alright, knock it off you two, this isn't helping anything," Carth instructed in an irritated tone. Thankfully HK lowered his rifle and Atton's shoulder's hunched in what looked suspiciously like a sulk. "Atton do you know for sure that Republic credits won't be any good?"

"I don't know anything for sure…" Atton started.

"Observation: I can attest to that from the time spent in his company Republic Meatbag."

"That's it!" Atton stupidly launched himself at the droid. Mical managed to catch Atton around the waist and hold him back while Carth put a hand on each shoulder.

"HK go into the garage and power down!" Carth yelled over his shoulder as he pushed to keep Atton restrained.

"Reluctant Compliance: Affirmative Republic Meatbag," the assassin droid clunked loudly out of the room.

Mical sighed in relief as Atton relaxed and released his hold on the other man's midsection. Carth shoved back on Atton's shoulders. "Are you insane? Or are you just stupid?" Carth asked the other man angrily.

"Back off Onasi! I don't need a lecture." Atton shoved Carth's hands off his shoulders.

"Really?" Carth asked sarcastically. "Because it looked to me you were just picking a fight with an extremely dangerous assassin droid. That has got to be one of the stupidest things I've even seen, and I've seen some idiotic stunts in my time!"

"You know what _Admiral_?" Atton shouted. "Last time I checked I wasn't one of your fleet boys. So I don't give a frack about your opinion. Just back off before you get hurt!" Atton shoved Carth back and stormed off to the quarters he shared with Mical.

Carth was vibrating with repressed anger and tension as he pushed back his two stray locks angrily. "What the hell is wrong with him?" He asked in rhetorical frustration.

"I know that Atton is not fond of droids in general," Mical started, puzzled, "but that was a little extreme even for him." He shrugged and looked at Carth.

Carth glared at the direction Atton had just disappeared to. Coming to a decision he told Mical, "I'll take this shift in the cockpit. Maybe you could talk to him?" the look on Carth's face said he thought that unlikely.

"I can certainly try," Mical offered hesitantly.

Carth nodded and headed for the cockpit. Entering the room he shut and locked the door. Settling himself into the pilot's seat he began punching up an encoded communication channel. Three times he was asked for authorization codes and each time he punched in a different one from memory. Finally he received a message from the screen that his transmission was being patched through. The small holoprojector on the bridge activated and a familiar face stared back at him. The holo of the man beamed at him.

"_Carth, I didn't expect it to be you_," the man said in a surprised tone. "_How's the vacation?"_

"It's been…interesting," Carth chuckled.

"_Well I suppose it's not really a vacation now, is it_?" the other man asked. His dark sleek hair was cut military short and his tilted black eyes crinkled in knowing amusement.

Carth snorted. Rigad knew just about everything that happened in the Republic and especially the military sooner or later. "So you heard huh?"

Rigad grinned. "_Of course! One of our best officers takes an extended leave of absence, I want to know why. Plus I wanted to make sure you weren't getting yourself into anything you couldn't handle. I still owe you from Onderon_."

"Well Rigad, I'm calling for a favor actually, unofficially."

"_Need some digging done_?" The man's image smiled like a firaxin shark.

"Yeah," Carth told Rigad. "I need anything you can find on a man named Atton Rand. He has some piloting skill. I think he has military training as well. Other than that I don't know much of anything about him. I need any background info you can find."

Rigad's face turned serious. "_Is he one of your traveling companions? I heard you hooked up with two others on Nar Shaddaa_."

"Damn," Carth muttered. "I was hoping I covered my tracks better than that."

"_Oh don't worry_," Rigad assured him, "_you did pretty well for an amateur, but I'm a professional_." Carth's old friend winked, and then his face turned serious. "_It's not a good idea to travel around with someone you know nothing about Carth, and if your asking me about him that means you think he might be dangerous_."

"Unfortunately Rig I don't have much of a choice. Just see what you can find for me."

Rigad sighed, "_You got it. Watch you back Carth_."

"Always, and thanks Rig."

Rigad waved a hand in dismissal. "_Buy me a beer when you get back_."

"Done," Carth agreed happily, and then the transmission faded. Having a friend who was second in charge of Fleet intelligence was definitely a bonus some days. Carth sat back in the chair, deep in thought.

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Atton was pacing back and forth in the dormitory he shared with Mical, trying to work off some of his anger and frustration. He shouldn't have overreacted like that. He shouldn't have let the comment get to him. He shouldn't have…Atton's breath came out in an irritated puff as he paused. It had been a long time since Atton had thought about that. A long time since he'd allowed himself to. Callia, Gods he missed her. Guilt burned through his gut. Atton had tried to save her, wanted so badly to save her, but in the end he'd been too late. He'd only been able to watch her die. Atton renewed his pacing with increased vigor, trying to ignore the internal pain. He was turning for another pass when Mical stepped into the room. Atton ignored him as he made his rounds, hoping Mical would take the hint and go away. The pilot filled his mind with anger at the assassin droid in case Mical decided to do any poking. Finding this caused him to clench his fists in renewed fury Atton stopped and began counting cards in his head instead. To his surprise though he hadn't felt Mical make any intrusions to look at his state of mind, and the Padawan was still too fresh in his abilities to try and slip through Atton's defenses without him knowing it.

Mical continued to watch Atton pace silently. He had considered trying to read Atton's surface thoughts but dismissed the idea. Atton was his companion, Mical even considered him a friend, and doing such a thing would have made Mical feel a bit dirty. Finally Atton stopped his circuit and stared at the Disciple angrily.

"What?" he snapped at Mical.

Mical tipped his head sympathetically. "I was just wondering if you wanted to talk."

"No," Atton barked, "I don't want to talk, go away!" He then resumed pacing.

Mical didn't leave however; he just stood there while watching Atton. Finally Mical sighed. "Atton," he began hesitantly, "I know due to certain circumstances we have not always been on the best of terms, but I'd like to think that has improved in the past couple of months. I'd like to think that we had come to a compromise of some sort, maybe even be on the way to being friends. I…" Mical decided to just leave Atton an opening. "If you want to talk, I am willing to listen."

Atton huffed and rubbed his head in frustration, making his unruly hair stand on end. Mical was right, despite the fact that he was a pompous jerk Atton had come to like him. Atton didn't know if that was going to continue once they found Ara, but having a common goal had brought them closer together. Maybe he should talk to someone, maybe he should let it out. Atton wiped a hand down his face and sighed.

"I…" Atton was surprised at how painful this was. "I had a sister. We were close, really close."

Mical was surprised that Atton had chosen to actually confide in him but hid it from the other man. Silently he nodded to encourage Atton to continue.

"She…my dad was a real bastard, and after my mom died things just got worse. Well…he owed an Exchange man credits, credits that he couldn't pay. So since she was younger, and he could get more for her, he sold her. She was put into slavery. She…she died not very long after. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's slavery."

"I am sorry Atton," Mical softly replied. "How old was she?"

"Twelve," he said. "Look, I don't want to talk about it anymore, alright?"

Mical nodded. "Of course. If you change your mind…"

"Yeah got it," Atton waved a hand, ending the conversation. Mical had turned to leave when Atton added, "Uh…Mical?"

Mical looked back over at him expectantly.

"Thanks," Atton grumbled.

Mical merely smiled in response and walked out the door.

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The last day two days to Tatooine passed uneventfully. Each of them took turns in the cockpit on watch, they played cards and games of chance, and Atton avoided HK-47. While he never apologized to Carth, the Admiral had a sneaking suspicion that Atton was often letting him win at Pazaak. It was the night before they were due to arrive on Tatooine that Mical came up with a possible solution to their likely credit problem.

"Alright Onasi, next round I'm going to wipe the floor with you." Atton boasted as Carth pulled his haul back toward him. They were playing with chits rather than credits to keep it friendly.

"Bring it on Rand," Carth bantered good-naturedly. Atton started shuffling the pazaak deck and looked up innocently at Carth.

"You know what would go great with the game?" Atton asked lightly.

"If this involves naked Twi'leks again, I don't want to know." Carth retorted. Mical snorted from his chair where he was perusing a datapad. Apparently it was the history of some old dead Jedi or another.

"Well, that would be great," Atton grinned distractedly while staring off into space. Shaking his head to dispel the mental image Atton continued, "No, I was thinking a drink, since we are decidedly short of Twi'lek girls, naked or otherwise."

Carth involuntarily grinned. "I have a feeling I know where this is going." Carth got up from the table. "Be back in sec." He exited the room. A few minutes later Carth strolled back in the room with a bottle in hand.

Atton sighed dramatically with a hand pressed to his chest. "Ah sweet nectar of the Gods!" he exclaimed happily. Mical on the other hand frowned at Carth's possession, the last time they had broken out the ale clearly on the blonde man's mind.

Carth shook his head at the Padawan grinning. "Don't worry Mical we won't go on another bender. Just a couple of drinks, I promise."

Atton got up to get glasses. "Yeah Mical, just a couple of drinks." He grabbed three glasses from the cabinet and plunked one down in front of Mical with a wide grin. Mical looked up at him skeptically, one eyebrow raised.

"Have a drink with us," Atton suggested as he slapped the Padawan on the back. Mical's eyes bugged a little in surprise at the impact and shot the other man a dirty look.

Carth kicked a leg over the back of the chair and sat down striding it. He cracked open the bottle and began pouring; first his, then Atton's and finally Mical's glass.

Mical watched the glass for a moment, as if waiting for it to attack him and then sighed resignedly. "I suppose one glass would be alright. After all," he added brightly, "I haven't ever had Tarisian ale before."

Atton's eyebrows shot up in surprise as he took a drink and then began dealing cards to Carth and himself. "Really? Well you're in for a treat then. Remember there are tons of sentients in the galaxy that would maim and or kill for a bottle of this stuff."

Mical stopped in mid sip and stared at Atton. "What did you say?"

Atton rolled his eyes. "Not me Mical. I mean I like a good drink, but not enough to attack someone. But Tarisan ale would be a hot commodity…oh crap!" Atton smacked himself in the forehead with the heel of his hand at the sudden realization.

"Exactly!" Mical responded excitedly.

"Wanna fill me in?" Carth asked a bit irritated.

"I think Admiral, that we may have found a solution to our impending credit problem." Mical beamed at Carth, and then at the bottle in the center of the table.

Carth looked from Mical to the bottle and realization dawned on his face. A grin slowly spread across Carth's mouth. Silently he raised his glass in a salute, and the other two responded with a clink of their glasses against it.

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A/N: I apologize for the 8's, but the page break fuction is not working for me, so it's better than nothing. I need to thank JediMaster12 from KFM for her beta, well I don't _need_ to but I want to, lol. A lot of snippets ended up packed into this chapter, and next stop their finally on Tatooine! No more NarShaddaa, at least I don't think so... The updates will be a little slower as this is the last chapter that is finished and beta'd, but I do have have three and a half more written, and they're long ones. Thank you to eneryone who leaves reviews, I love reading them, and that's why I try to respond.

Lady Sara: If you do MMO's he's also in the Star Wars Galaxies "Trial's of Obi-Wan expansion. Little bugger has apparrently been up to no good these past four thousand years without Revan to reign him in.

Dante: I honestly have no idea where I got the idea to do that, sometimes I don't even get how my brain works. I'm glad you like it, and I chuckled the whole time writing it.

Child: One of the few things I liked about K2 was that T3 actualy got some personality. Granted it's pretty much R2's personality but at least he has one. Maybe he's an earlier model of R2...?

Lunatic: Yeah Goto got on my nerves, flying jerk... especially at the end where he's picking on poor Remote. kicks Goto As for the armor, well I went off the stats from the game. Carth only gets a... I think it's a 2+ dexterity in that thing so I had him slow down a bit. I always imagined Carth as being a very dexterous guy (dirty pun intended) and any armor would slow him down. Even the light stuff only allows you a max of +5. Imagines shmexy Darth Carth... Mmmm... what?


	13. No Man's Land

A/N: As always thanks to JediMaster12 at KFM for betaing my random strings of sentences. In this installment more trouble comes the way of our heros. What action/advernture would be complete without a barfight?

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Their landing into Anchorhead was uneventful. While the failing navigational thrusters gave Carth a few problems, he managed to sail into the landing area without a bump. This was much to Atton's disappointment as he was hoping for the chance to rib Carth on his flying skills. That crack about his crash landings still stung a bit. It appeared that Atton was right about Republic credits being no good, and they were grounded until at the very least they came up with enough money to pay the landing fees. Mineral wealth, trade goods such as cargo, and oddly enough Hutt currency were the only thing the dock master would take for payment. Carth had suggested using a bottle of the ale but Atton had shot that down, saying that a bottle of Tarisian ale should cover the landing of twenty ships. He suggested they find someone who could transfer the ale into Hutt money or precious gems and metals.

As they entered the streets of one of the few Tatooine settlements, Carth was surprised at how little it had changed…and how much it had changed. The layout of the town was exactly the same as he remembered it, but the occupants had altered considerably. In an area that had once been dominated by miners and hunters with the occasional swoop rider thrown in, it was now populated with mercenaries, bounty hunters, slave traders, pirates, smugglers, gangsters and just your average all around thugs. It was noisier too, with sellers calling out their wares, sentients of all sorts calling out general greetings or insults, and four mercenaries that started brawling right in the middle of the road. The trio quickly dodged out of the way of two of the mercs, a Devaronian and a Trandoshan, as they sailed right in front of their path; hitting, kicking, and Carth even thought he saw some biting going on in there.

Mical had argued at first when Atton had suggested getting out of his Jedi robes and into plain trousers and tunic. The Padawan had only relented when the Admiral had said he thought it was for the best as well. Looking around at the general atmosphere surrounding him, Mical was glad he listened. This place was worse than the Nar Shaddaa Refugee Sector on its worst day. He didn't imagine a Jedi would be too welcome here. Carth was back in his black pants, black military combat boots, and orange flight jacket. He had decided against wearing his armor because of the heat, and also the fact that it was obviously expensive and Carth was afraid it would make them an irresistible target for all sorts of mugging attempts. Looking at the rough types inhabiting this settlement now, he was beginning to question that decision. Atton on the other hand was wearing the same type of clothes he wore everyday; white shirt, dusty brown pants, short boots and his disreputable brown jacket. He fit right in.

"So Atton," Mical started while holding up his right hand to shade his eyes from the sun, "what type of mercantile do you suggest we seek out?"

Atton was watching a group of barely clothed Joygirls go by, leering appreciatively. The purple Twi'lek and tan Zabrak waved and giggled as they passed. The Zabrak yelled out, "You boys lookin' for company? We'll even give three studs like you a discount!" The rest of the women threw back their heads and laughed.

Atton grinned like an idiot and waved but shook his head in refusal. The Zabrak and Twi'lek pouted prettily and the group sauntered off. Atton admired the movement of their hips as they swayed away. Mical tapped Atton on the shoulder to draw his attention away from the prostitutes, causing Atton to look back at the Padawan with a slight frown.

"Could you please keep your mind on the business at hand?" Mical asked sarcastically.

"What? I was just looking. Not all of us are celibate you know."

Mical rolled his eyes. "Jedi are not celibate, we…forget it. The ale? A suitable merchant?" he reminded Atton.

"Oh yeah. We need someone who deals in all sorts of trade, with enough sources to give us a fair shake. Best place to dig up a contact like that would most likely be the cantina."

Carth pulled his attention from the retreating women, feeling a tad guilty for looking so long, but it _had_ been a long time. "But we don't have anything to buy drinks with."

"Well," Atton said happily, "that's where I come in. Come on guys, let's head out." Atton started walking down the street leaving the two men to follow behind.

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"He's cheating!" Mical whispered furiously to the man across the table.

Carth shrugged one shoulder nonchalantly and looked over at Mical. "He's winning," the admiral responded. It certainly wasn't the first time he'd seen someone cheat at Pazaak. Mission used to do it all the time, and he'd even known Morii to do it a time or two, although she wasn't as good at it. Atton had used the slicing device that had gotten them off of Goto's yacht for collateral on his first couple of games, and now he was cleaning house. Even if they couldn't sell the ale Carth was pretty sure the haul Atton had made so far would cover the landing fee, if not yet the repair parts they needed. Carth had to admit that Atton was good. He could see no evidence that the younger man was cheating, and Atton was losing just enough to keep too much suspicion off of him.

Mical and Carth were seated a couple of tables away, neither of them being much good at the game. Atton had slipped them a few Hutt notes when he broke to use the refresher for drinks and food. Carth munched on his lunch and gazed around the Anchorhead Cantina. The bar still ran down the center with tables lining the walls and Carth could have sworn that the band and dancers were the same ones here on his last visit. Dark and smoky with that permeating cigarra stink, no one had bothered to remodel since the last time he was in here, watching Bastila fight with her mother. Carth sighed, remembering how Morii had taken Bastila's post mortem Hero's Cross to Helena on Coruscant. Bastila's fall, like Morii's identity had been kept very hush-hush by the Jedi Council. They had felt it was better to let Bastila be remembered a hero, and to his surprise Morii agreed.

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"_She regretted it in the end you know," Morii said softly as she looked down at Bastila's medal nestled in its case._

"_She did?" Carth asked as he came up behind her and rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. "How do you know?"_

_Morii looked back at him, her eyes sad but dry. She had already cried all of her tears for Bastila. "I…held her while she died. She was afraid to come back from the Dark side, I think. Afraid that it was too late. Or maybe she was just too stubborn, but she regretted it anyways." Morii looked back at the box, and snapped it shut loudly. "She asked me, begged me really, not to tell her mother about what had happened, what she'd done. She said she wanted her mother to be proud of her and to remember her as her daughter, not as a Sith. Bastila asked me to promise not to tell her."_

"_And you did," Carth made the sentence a statement instead of a question._

_Morii set the box down on the table and turned toward his arms, leaning her head against the top of Carth's chest. Looking up into his face she said, "I told her that I would tell her mother the truth, her daughter Bastila died fighting the Dark side and the Sith." Morii gave him a sorrowful smile._

_Carth returned it with a sad smile of his own and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead._

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Carth waved over the waitress and ordered Mical and him two more of the amber ales that they served. Light and cool, they were more refreshing than intoxicating, as well as one of the few decent drinks the cantina served. Mical was still glaring at Atton from across the room when their beers arrived.

Carth sighed and tapped Mical's hand across the table. "Let it go Mical. There's nothing you can do about it anyways, and we do need the money, especially if we can't find a buyer for that ale."

Mical turned around in his chair to face back at Carth while still frowning. "How Ara could ever be attracted to such a disreputable person I'll…" As if Mical just realized he was speaking aloud he cut off his statement.

Carth leaned back in his chair with his eyebrows raised and a knowing smile.

"For…forgive me Admiral…it's just that…well she's…and he's…and I…oh bloody hell!" Mical finished angrily.

Carth burst out laughing, which caused Mical's fair skin to blush furiously. "If this is about your three's little love triangle problem, I figured it out that first day back on Nar Shaddaa." Carth took a sip to quell his smile.

Mical's eyes widened in surprise, "You did?" Sighing, he went into a dejected slump and asked, "It was that obvious?"

Carth frame shook in a silent laugh. "Oh yeah," he told the mortified man across the table. "I take it your runaway Jedi hadn't come to any type of decision before she left? Was she interested in both of you back?" Carth decided to pry since Mical seemed to want to talk.

"I think so…" Mical began. "She was so focused on our mission, so determined that she brushed the issue aside. It was almost as if she had to make up for all of her time spent in exile at once. I know that Jedi are not supposed to feel these emotions for another, I know that it is discouraged, and rightly so…I just…" Mical seemed to be searching for the right words as her ran his fingers through his blond locks. "I just can't stop thinking about her. When I am in the room with her, it's as if everything and everyone else just fades away. I thought being her Padawan would be enough, that it would fulfill me and I would forget these inappropriate feelings but if anything it's made them worse." Mical looked over at a grinning Atton scooping up another win. "Sometimes I envy him." The Jedi shook his head dejectedly. "He doesn't have these doubts or guilt over what he feels for Ara. For him it's simply at matter of convincing _her_ to accept them, while I battle with whether I should even accept them myself." Mical stared intently at his drink.

Carth's eyes were sympathetic and his mouth pulled down in pity. He thought he and Morii had it bad. Okay, they did have it pretty bad at times, but in the end she had totally embraced her feelings for him, even to the point where she stated if the Jedi Council made her choose, Morii had said she would choose Carth. He himself had never looked back with any regret once he accepted her past, well truly accepted it.

"I'm very sorry Mical, I wish I knew what to tell you," Carth offered softly.

"I…appreciate the sentiment Admiral," Mical paused, unsure. "May I ask you a personal question?" He looked up at Carth.

"After all that, I suppose I owe you one, go ahead."

"How…how did you and Rev…Jedi Vohn deal with your affection for one another? I gather that she stayed with you after the Star Forge from your comments. What did she think of the Jedi's forbidding of romantic attachments? How did the Council react to her relationship with you? Did she ever…did she ever feel tempted back to the Dark side because of her feelings?" Mical looked horrified that he had dared asked that last question.

Carth shook his head. "It's all right Mical, I said you could ask and I meant it." Carth stared at his empty plate for a moment deep in though. "In regards to the Jedi, the Council never really brought it up." Mical's eyebrows shot up in surprise at this. "I'm not sure why, but if there's one thing the Jedi are good at it's being mysterious with their motives. She said they did ask her about the nature of our relationship, and warned her that the Jedi considered such attachments dangerous when she told them. In the end though, they left it alone. They gave her no ultimatum, no threats of dire consequences or expulsion from the Order. They just sent her on her way. Of course that may have had more to do with Jolee Bindo's influence than anything." Looking back up at Mical he continued, "As for being tempted to the Dark side? I…I don't really know. I do in an abstract way get why such relationships are discouraged." Carth chuckled softly to himself. "Force knows Morii could drive me up the wall when she had a mind to, but…" Carth paused and looked off into space, not sure if he wanted to share something so personal. "Morii told me once," he began almost in a whisper, "that she rejected the dark side because of me. When the temptation was at its worst… that it was because of me she was able to turn away from it, that she couldn't bear to hurt me like that. She couldn't betray me like…" Carth stopped and looked down at his drink before he said anymore, unable to meet Mical's gaze. The Disciple remained silent. "That is probably the single most humbling thing I've ever been told."

Mical was deeply touched by Carth's story and a bit jealous as well. He had something with Revan that Mical only dreamed of sharing with Ara. Of course it appeared the Admiral was also paying a price for it. His life seemed to have gone on hold from the moment Revan left him.

"Hey you two! I've think I might have a dealer for our cargo. Let's get outta here before those idiots wise up." Atton walked up to the table and gave Mical a jovial slap on the back, which made Mical scowl. Carth was beginning to think Atton did it on purpose to irritate the other man.

"So who's your contact?" Carth looked up at Atton expectantly.

"Uh, that might end up being a bit of a problem. He's the local Exchange Boss." Atton looked at bit queasy at his admission.

"No way!" Carth shook his head emphatically. "No way are we getting mixed up with the Exchange, that's just asking for a blaster shot in the back."

"Eh," Atton said dismissively. "We can handle any Exchange thugs." Mical and Carth frowned up at Atton in disbelief. Seeing the looks on their faces Atton shrugged. "Not like we have much of a choice. From what I hear this Barucus is the only person on this sandbox with the type of resources to pay for our stuff." They had decided it would not be a good idea to mention their cargo aloud and attract greedy thieves.

"We still need to look for any information on Ara's whereabouts as well," Mical put in. Mical had proclaimed that if Ara was still on Tatooine he should have been able to sense her through the Force. It had been assumed by the three that she must have moved on.

"Well…we'll probably need some credits to grease the gears, nobody's going to just give us the information around here," Carth put in as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "How much did you manage to get?" He motioned to Atton's bulging pockets.

"Oh, about 350 credits," Atton beamed. Carth however had stopped listening. Approaching behind Atton was one of the Rodian that Atton had been playing with previously, along with three of his friends. They didn't look like they were coming over for a friendly chat either. Carth's eyes narrowed as he looked over at Mical, and then up at Atton with a silent warning in his eyes. Mical frowned as he casually glanced over at the approaching men and his hand slid toward his tunic pocket. Atton's face sharpened as he slowly moved his own hand closer to his holstered blaster. Carth reached under the table and placed a palm on each of his pistol grips. The group leader stopped directly behind Atton and tapped him on the shoulder.

_You owe us some credits sentient._ The Rodian said mildly.

Atton's eyebrows raised and he smirked at the group. "And what exactly gave you that delusion?" he asked mildly.

_You've had a good run, and I have a mate and five younglings to feed_, the leader said sarcastically.

Atton snorted. "Aw, you're breakin' my heart."

_We shall break other parts of you're anatomy if you don't return the credits you stole!_ The Rodian spat angrily.

Atton placed his fist on his hip, right above his blaster grip. "Stole? Oh I see. Because you're a Gammorean's ass of a Pazaak player you think you can shake me down." Atton sneered at the group. Mical sighed at Atton's provoking of the thugs and his hand moved into his pocket to grip the lightsaber hilt hidden inside.

"I think you guys just better move on, you don't want trouble with us." Carth's smile was genial, but his eyes were hard as he glared at each of the group in turn. One of the other Rodian tapped the leader on the shoulder nervously, but the leader brushed his companion off.

_You cheated human! You're good enough that I don't know how, but nonetheless I know you cheated. Now you can hand over the credits, or we can take this to Barucus and we collect your bounty. I don't think you want that._

"Bounty?" Mical asked confused. "We don't have any bounty on us."

The Rodian made a snorting noise and his lackeys started laughing. _You have a big bounty on you, all three of you. We've seen the contracts human. They just came out through the Exchange's network. So hand over the credits or we take you to Barucus._

Atton pulled his blaster and pointed the muzzle at the leader's head. "I don't think so," he smirked at the Rodian.

The Rodian thug bared his teeth in a mockery of a human smile. _You are a very stupid human_.

Atton pulled the trigger on his blaster and…nothing happened. The scoundrel's eyes widened and he said, "Oh frack," right before the lead Rodian slugged him in the face. Atton landed flat on his back on the cantina floor. The group laughed at Atton while Carth gave Mical a worried look. The same thought went through their minds right before the Rodian confirmed it.

_Energy suppressors, human. You can't fire any weapons in here_.

Atton looked up from the floor at the Rodian leader and gave a feral smile, blood showing on his teeth. Lightning fast he kicked out his right boot and crushed the Rodian's kneecap with a sickening crunch sound. The Rodian began howling in pain as he doubled over to clutch his destroyed joint. Atton brought up his fist and connected it with the sentient's jaw, sending him flying backwards into his buddies. The others stumbled back as they caught their leader.

The group helped the head thug stand back on his feet. He looked at his flunkies and said in an angry pain filled voice, Get them! The group of Rodians charged the three men en mass.

Carth stood and threw the remainder of his beer into the first attacker's face. While his opponent was wiping his face and sputtering, Carth cocked back his fist and hit the alien in the eye. The Rodian screamed in a high-pitched whine as blood spurted and stumbled backward, falling over an empty chair. Carth then sent out his right leg in a roundhouse kick earned from hours of unarmed sparring with several Jedi and a hulking Mandalorian, knocking the next enemy into a table occupied by four now seriously unhappy Trandoshans.

Mical debated pulling his lightsaber and decided against it, as he was unsure if it would even work in a suppressor field and was unwilling to expose himself as a Jedi. Folding his hands together into a single fist he instead swung it sideways into the last Rodian's stomach as he reached out to grab at Mical. The Rodian wheezed and sailed back into an extremely large Gammorean. The Gammorean stumbled as the Rodian fell into him and squealed in outrage. Picking up the winded Rodian, the Gammorean lifted him over his head and threw him to one side. The flying Rodian landed smack in the middle of a table with four human mercenaries seated at it. It was at this point that all hell broke loose in the cantina.

The Mercs jumped back in surprise as the table buckled under the impact of the body that fell on it. All four gave a battle cry and charged the Gammorean while the large green alien pulled out his war axe. The mercs pulled vibroblades which were no more than swords at the moment. The Rodian Carth had punched picked himself up, pulled out a wicked serrated knife and charged Carth with one blind eye and a high battle cry. The Trandoshans rose from their seats as one, picked up the Rodian who had landed on their table and as a group flung him off. The Rodian sailed into Atton who had just picked himself up off the ground. The two landed in a heap on the cantina floor. Atton and the Rhodian quickly recovered and began rolling around on the floor in a desperate wrestling match, as they pummeled each other with numerous punches and a few attempted kicks.

Carth jumped back as the knife wielding Rodian took a wild swing at him. Luckily the sentient had no idea how to knife fight or Carth would have been eviscerated. Mical came up behind the armed alien and wrapped his arm around the Rodian's neck, causing him to drop the knife as he gagged and sank to his knees due to the lack of air. The thug who had been thrown into the human merc table had managed to untangle himself and came up behind Mical. Carth grabbed his now empty glass and smashed it into the face of the Rodian sneaking up directly behind Mical. The glass shattered and the Rodian screamed as the shards sliced up his skin.

Atton, having finally knocked out the Rhoidan who fell on him was crawling on the floor, was sporting a fat lip while pieces of broken plastic and glass rained down on him. Crawling under a table he found a half empty bottle. Atton unscrewed the top and sniffed it. Smiling as he recognized the scent of Corellian Fire Whiskey Atton took a swig, and then grimaced as the alcohol stung his cut lip. Catching a movement from the corner of his eye Atton snaked backward just as the female human merc slid right past him on her back. Seeing several hundred pounds of enraged green flesh following the powerfully built woman, Atton executed a tight roll out of the way just as the Gammorean flipped the table over and lumbered heavily after his prey. Atton checked to make sure he hadn't spilled any whiskey and began crawling toward Mical and Carth with the bottle clutched in one hand.

The Admiral and Padawan were back to back. Currently they were fending off three Trandoshans and the leader of the Rodian thugs who was favoring his left leg heavily. The Rodian had somehow managed to grab one of the mercenary's vibroblades and was sparring Carth, who had pulled his own blade from his back sheath. Mical had augmented his reflexes slightly with the Force and was trading blows with the three unarmed Trandoshans. Atton crawled around the group and stood up behind Mical's opponents. Holding the bottle over his head, Atton smashed the container into the skull of the middle Trandoshan. The alien's legs folded as he dropped to the floor, unconscious. Atton then pulled back his right arm and punched the one on his left as the other two turned to see what had knocked out their companion. The force of the hit sent the alien into the wall, banging his head against it and knocking the Trandoshan out. Seeing his opening, Mical sent a hand chopping into the base of the last Trandoshan's neck and he joined his two friends on the ground.

Carth was more than a match for the Rodian ringleader and disarmed him with a flick of his blade. Holding the point to the throat of the instigator, Carth paused for a moment before he smirked and flipped the sword around. The hilt struck the Rodian's temple and he crumpled to the ground unconscious.

Atton came up behind Carth and grabbed his arm, almost getting sliced for his trouble. Carth's vibroblade stopped an inch from Atton's chest as Carth pulled back on his momentum, recognizing the other man.

"Force Onasi! Watch where you swing that thing!"

"Sorry, I…" Carth was unable to finish as Mical grabbed his and Atton's necks and shoved them to the floor. The remains of a table sailed over their heads, propelled by two beefy Gammorean arms as the plastic crashed into one of the human mercs in front of them.

"I think that's our cue to get the frack out of here!" Atton yelled at the others. Looking around at the pandemonium ensuing in the cantina the other two agreed. Crouching, they made a beeline for the kitchen located in the back of the cantina behind the bar. The Twi'lek dancers and Bith musicians had already retreated behind the scenes. The three men climbed over the bar and started through the back door. Atton was the last one, and paused momentarily to watch the brawl taking place. He gave a jaunty salute to the ensuing chaos and ducked out of the room.

The three men ran through the kitchen at top speed as the staff yelled in fear and shock at their sudden appearance. The Quarren bar manager shook his fist at them and started cursing in his native tongue. Atton threw him a fifty credit chip as he breezed by which seemed to mollify the Quarren considerably. Following Mical's back he saw Onasi in the lead open the back door and duck out. All three spilled into the shadowed alley behind the cantina and Atton slammed the door behind him. He looked up at the other two men and burst out laughing.

Mical gave him an angry look. "What precisely is so funny about you almost getting us killed?" Atton however didn't have the breath to answer that as he whooped and hollered. The corners of Carth's mouth twitched as his face became a bright maroon color. Finally Carth lost his self control and joined in Atton's laughter. Mical stared at both of them as if they had just lost their minds.

Atton was bent over with one hand on his knee and the other slung over Carth's shoulder. Carth's own arm was draped over Atton's back and they appeared to be the only thing holding each other up. Mical was at a total loss for words at this behavior.

Finally gasping, Carth spoke first. "Force! I haven't done that in years!" He collapsed into giggles again.

"Did…that Quarren…just curse us with the nits…of a thousand Bomas to infest our testicles?" Atton gasped between laughs.

This caused Carth to laugh so hard he couldn't even speak, but he nodded his head in confirmation.

"That's…what I thought!" Atton sank onto the hard ground, threw back his head and roared. Carth quickly followed him down onto the packed sand.

When the laughter had finally started to abate Mical huffed and crossed his arms as he watched the pair. "I think we should leave before anyone comes looking for us." He arched an eyebrow at them.

Carth swallowed his mirth, nodded and stood up, brushing sand off the back of his pants. He turned to Atton and held out a hand to help him up. Atton took it and Carth pulled him off the ground.

Atton stood while still chuckling and smacked Carth good naturedly on the back. "You know, you're not so bad Onasi," Atton grinned.

Carth returned the expression. "You're not so bad yourself Rand." He jerked his head and said, "Let's get the hell out of here."


	14. Complications

A/N: As always much bowing and scraping to JediMaster12 at KFM for the beta. And since I haven't done one in a while - Disclaimer: I don't own nuthin, if I did Revan would be a chick.

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The three men darted through the back alleys of Anchorhead on alert for any cantina patrons who may have been looking for a little payback. Making their way cautiously through the settlement they discussed the Rodian's statement before the bar fight.

"First thing we need to find out is if we really have a bounty out on us," Carth told the others.

"Why would anyone put a bounty on us?" Mical asked from the rear of the group.

"My credits are on that son of a schutta Goto," Atton frowned as they paused to check the street for danger. "Wouldn't be the first time he pulled something like that."

Carth looked around the corner and then checked the other end of the street. Looking over at their resident Jedi he asked, "Mical?"

Mical closed his eyes briefly and stretched out his awareness. "I sense no threats or hostility, at least no more than normal. It should be safe to proceed." They entered the street and began walking toward the landing area. The other sentients on the street largely ignored them, much to the men's relief. When they came to the entrance of the _Hawk's_ berth Carth held out a hand to stop them.

"I think we'd better go around the back," the other two gave Carth a puzzled look. "Just humor me," he told them.

Mical shrugged but Atton asked, "Are you always this paranoid?"

Carth gave him a wry smile. "Pretty much, but I'm also still alive. Come on," he jerked his head to the left, "this way." He led the other two back around the buff colored wall lining the _Ebon Hawk's_ port. They came to a small locked door at the back of the landing pad. "Atton, think you can open this for us?"

Atton smiled slightly. "Shouldn't be a problem." He pulled out his tools and went to work. "What's this door for?" he asked Carth.

"I think it for maintenance and cargo crew access," Carth responded as he watched the other man work. After about thirty seconds they heard a popping noise and Atton returned his security slicing tools to his inner coat pocket.

Atton reached for the door panel when Carth stopped him with a hand on his arm. Carth pulled a blaster in response to Atton's quizzical look and the scoundrel rolled his eyes. However Atton pulled his own weapon while Mical retrieved his lightsaber from his tunic pocket. Carth motioned for the others to move to the sides of the entrance before he pressed the door panel and darted around the doorjamb next to Mical. The door slid open with a soft hiss and all three men stood silently, waiting for trouble. Carth and Atton looked a question at Mical and he gave a single nod. The coast was clear.

They were in a storage area behind the landing pad. A long hallway stretched out in front of them with open empty dust filled rooms on either side. The men crept forward cautiously through the partially lit hall, stopping to check each room before proceeding. When they finally reached the end of the hall they came to another door, this time unlocked. The trio was tense as Carth pressed the door open. Again anticipating trouble they were thrumming with adrenaline as they waited. Mical gave a signal of all clear and they went through the doorway. This hall was open to the sky at the top and ran to the right. They were in the landing pad. Cautiously they crept to the end where it opened into the hanger holding their ship. Peeking around the corner, Atton scowled and ducked back around the wall and looked at the other two.

"I hate to say it but it looks like you were right Onasi. There's about ten Duros around the loading ramp," he whispered to his companions. "Judging by their organization and the amount of weapons they're carrying I'm betting their part of the Zhug Brothers. It looks like they're trying to get it down and get into the ship. And they have a _lot_ of weapons."

"Damn!" Carth cursed softly. Mical sighed and frowned at this news. Carth lifted his left arm and activated his communicator. "HK, do you read me?" he asked quietly.

"_Response: Affirmative Republic Meatbag_," came a tinny voice.

"Is the ship secure?"

"_Answer: Yes Meatbag, the astromech droid and I have secured the ship. Statement: It would be much more effective if you would let me kill the hostile Meatbags attempting to enter_."

"Negative HK, you are not to kill any Meatbags without my permission, do you understand?" he hissed into the communicator. "Only if they get through, and you contact me immediately if that happens."

"_Reluctant Compliance: Yes, Republic Meatbag_." Carth could swear the homicidal droid was pouting. _"I shall wait and hope they manage to breach the ramp."_

"HK if you let them in I'm going to have T3 install that pacifist module we found in the cargo hold," Carth threatened.

"_Surprised Observation: Republic Meatbag! I had no idea you could be so cruel. I'm beginning to see why the Master would choose you for a mate."_

Carth decided it was better not to respond to the comment and simply rolled his eyes.

Mical frowned, "What do we do now?" he asked the others.

"We could try to take them down…" Atton started.

"_Eager Statement:_ _Ready!_" Apparently the comm was still open.

Carth peeked around the corner, sighed and rubbed his neck. "Besides the fact that we could end up killed, there's not really much of a point."

"Not much of a point?" Atton hissed. "They've got our ship!"

Carth gave Atton a frown. "A ship that's heavily damaged. Even it we could get it back, I'm not sure we could limp it to another system in its current condition. So even if we get the _Ebon Hawk_ back, we can't go anywhere and that makes us a sitting gizka for whoever's after us."

"So now what do we do?" Atton asked in frustration.

Carth looked solemnly at his partners. "I have no idea."

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They snuck back out the way they came in, Carth leaving very clear instructions for HK or T3 to contact him if the bounty hunters managed to breach the ship. The three men were in poor spirits as they walked away from the landing pad back entrance.

"So we've got no ship, a bounty on our heads, and no cargo," Carth reviewed with the others, "what do we have?" He looked at them expectantly.

"I don't think it would be wise to return to the cantina any time soon as well," Mical put in despondently. "Until the Force leads us to a new path, I'm not sure there is much we can do."

Atton shot the Padawan a dirty look. "Well personally I'm not really big on waiting for omens and portents Mical."

Mical in turn gave Atton an expectant look. "If you have any suggestions I am open to them." He raised his eyebrows in a question.

"Well…" Atton began reluctantly, "like you said the cantina is currently not an option. There's one other possible option, but I was hoping to avoid it." Atton looked slightly nauseous.

"Out with it Rand, we're pretty low on options right now," Carth put in.

"I am so going to regret this." Atton rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. "I know a Hutt."

The other two men waited for Atton to continue. When he didn't Mical asked impatiently, "And…?"

Atton stopped walking and ran his hand through his hair vigorously, "Uh, well…before I met Ara on Peragus I was here for a couple of months looking for work." He held his hands out in pleading gesture. "I uh…I got a job working for a resident Hutt boss here in Anchorhead, flying local shuttles and transporting cargo. I left…in a bit of a hurry…and I'm betting my boss wasn't pleased."

"Did you do something unsavory?" Mical asked suspiciously. "Did you end up stealing from him?"

"No, no…nothing like that!" he protested. "I uh…left to _avoid_ something…unsavory."

Carth involuntarily rolled his eyes. "Would you quit stalling and just spit it out!"

"Hey, this is…painful, and embarrassing." Atton looked down at the ground. "Lobosha the Hutt isn't a he, he's a she." Atton dug his toe into the dirt as he shoved his hands into his coat pockets. "Lobosha wanted…uh…she said…well…she kinda had a crush on me."

Two pairs of eyebrows shot up in shock as Atton continued. "She uh…well she wanted me to complete…special assignments. Um, personal assignments, you know? I um, turned her down…and she wasn't happy. I had to make a hasty retreat, and stowed away the next transport off Tatooine, which happened to be going to Peragus. I had a contact that was offering me some sort of job there. Well between my lack of actually paying for the trip and the sabotage that started occurring shortly after I got there, pretty soon I landed in that force cage, and then I met Ara." He gave his companions a pitiful look which brightened a bit at the end with the mention of the Exile.

Mical and Carth's mouths' hung open in utter astonishment as they stared at Atton. Mical blinked a couple of time and began smiling. Carth looked like he wanted to throw up. Mical cleared his throat three different times before he managed to speak. He was rather proud that his voice only betrayed a slight tremor. "Do you think she would be willing to help us?"

Atton could see Mical trying not to laugh and shot him a dirty look. "What I'm worried about is what…I'd have to do to get Lobosha's help."

Carth had his lips pressed together very hard. When he felt in control of his amusement and disgust he spoke. "I, uh, think maybe we should explore…other options before we pimp Atton out." Carth snapped his mouth shut to cut off the laugh that was threatening to escape.

Atton's breath came out in a relieved sigh. "Thank you! Thank you! _Thank you_!" he blathered. The men continued walking down the street. Atton was the first to break the silence. "The money I got from the Pazaak table should be enough to get us by for at least a couple of days," he offered. "At least until we can figure out what to do." He shrugged at the others.

"We should see about renting a room," Mical started, "and perhaps with a day's reflection…" Mical's suggestion was interrupted by a blaster shot sailing over his shoulder. All three spun around toward the source of the fire.

"Son of a schutta!" Atton swore. The ten Zhug bounty hunters from the Hawk were running up on them with blaster rifles drawn. "Looks like they found us!"

"Run!" Carth commanded and the men sprinted off. The Duros began firing at them as they took off down the street. Carth cut through an alley with Mical and Atton on his heels. Atton risked a look over his shoulder and saw the Zhugs hot on their trail yelling and cursing. As he passed a stack of empty crates Atton spun around and pulled at the middle of the stack, sending the entire pile crashing onto the ground. The two lead Duros fell into the crates before they could stop their forward momentum. Atton heard them yelling and extended his middle finger over his shoulder in response as he continued down the alley.

Carth saw two more Zhug Brothers waiting for them at the end of the alleyway. He pulled his blasters and began firing without slowing his run. One Duros ducked out of the way and the other cried out as he fell over clutching at a shoulder wound. Carth sprinted over the fallen bounty hunter and backhanded the other with his pistol grip as he reached the end of the alley. The second Duros fell to the ground unconscious. Mical ran out just behind Carth and Atton burst out a few seconds later.

Scanning the street Mical saw a group of four more Zhugs to the east and pointed. "There!" he yelled.

"How many of these guys are there?" Carth asked in irritation.

"Hundreds," Atton snarled.

"You're kidding me!" Carth yelled in disbelief as they took off in the opposite direction from their pursuers. The group that Atton had managed to stall in the alley also broke through at this point and joined the chase.

"I wish!" Atton hollered as they sprinted down the street. As their current luck would have it the street was some sort of outdoor bazaar and it was filled with stalls, vendors and shoppers.

They dodged and weaved as they pushed their way through the patrons. The men bumped into several buyers and sellers, getting curses and flailed fists thrown at them along the way. Mical's apologies of "Excuse us!" and "Pardon!" and "I do apologize!" echoed through the shopping area as they ran.

"Shut up Mical and help me pull this down!" Atton yelled as they came to a display rack of large urns almost as tall as a person.

Mical ran up on the other side of the shelves and said, "But Atton, we don't…"

"Pull!" Atton commanded as he began tipping over the display. Mical shut up and did as he was told. The shelves and clayware came crashing down onto the ground, spreading into the center of the street and blocking the path. The Ithorian shopkeeper was wailing out both mouths in protest at the loss of her merchandise.

Ever the gentleman Mical stopped in front of her and began apologizing. "I am so terribly sorry! Perhaps later…" he was interrupted as Carth grabbed the back of his tunic and dragged him away.

"Apologize later! Run now!" Carth ordered as he pushed Mical down the street, but not before the Padawan tossed the last of his Hutt credit notes at the shopkeeper. Looking back over his shoulder Carth saw that most of the Zhug bounty hunters were tangled in the mess Atton and Mical had made. It wouldn't hold them for long though. Already a few of them had managed to crawl over the pile. Carth turned and trotted backwards while sending a few rapid blasts at the ones who had cleared the debris. Two Duros dropped and a third jumped back behind the broken urns. Shoppers began screaming and ducking, running for cover behind street stalls. Carth spun around and spotted Mical ducking into an alley. He took off in the Padawan's direction.

Coming into the alley he ran but didn't see Mical anywhere. Adding a boost to his speed Carth was almost clotheslined as an arm shot out of a doorway. Dropping into a roll at the last minute he came up in a crouch with blasters aimed at the entryway and the mysterious hand.

"Admiral!" Realizing that the arm belonged to Mical, Carth holstered his right pistol and grabbed the outstretched hand. Mical grabbed Carth by the wrist and heaved him into the building, slammed the door behind them, and dropping a barricading bar into place.

Both men were panting as they stood in the dim empty room, which looked to be a kitchen, although it was dusty and didn't appear to have been used in some time. It seemed the building was abandoned and Carth holstered his other blaster, thankful their luck seemed to be changing. They listened intently for sounds of their pursuers but didn't hear anything. After about a minute Carth realized that something was wrong.

"Where the hell is Atton?" he asked.

Mical's eyes met Carth's and widened in horror as he realized that they had lost their companion. "I thought he was with you!"

Carth shook his head. "Nope, I thought he was with you. Damn! Where the frack did he go?"

Before Mical could hazard a guess they heard the sound of blaster rifles being powered up. Looking into the gloom they saw two shadowed figures aiming weapons at them.

Password, the huge figure on the left asked in Shyriiwook, of all things.

The two men looked at each other in confusion. Mical stepped forward and started, "I believe there's been…" Before he could finish both rifles fired.

Carth saw a small, cloaked figure run up from behind the shooters and yell, "Wait!" before he lost consciousness.

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Atton had dodged down three alleys and two streets so far, and had yet to lose the bounty hunters. Huffing his way down a fourth alley Atton looked behind him. So far none of the Zhugs had managed to catch up. Looking back toward the other end of the alley Atton saw a ladder attached to a building on the left. He ran toward it, grabbed a rung and pulled himself up with catlike grace. Atton managed to swing his body over onto the roof just as he heard the sounds of pursuit coming from the alley entrance. He laid flat on his back and tried to quiet his heavy panting. He was breathing so hard from his recent exertion that he was sure the Duros would be able to hear it all the way from the ground.

The sounds from his pursuers traveled down the alley and disappeared out the other end. Waiting to make sure they weren't coming back, Atton cautiously poked his head over the edge of the roof and checked the ground below. Seeing no one in the alley he quietly began making his way back down the ladder, alert for any noise. Atton dropped from a couple of rungs up, crouched on the ground and grabbed his pistol. Still the man heard nothing to alert him that the Zhug Brothers had found him. Slowly standing, Atton holstered his pistol and moved to the end of the alley back the way he came in. He checked around the corner, but saw nothing other than everyday Anchorhead citizens.

Atton smiled in relief and strolled casually out into the road. Now all he had to do was find out what happened to Mical and Onasi. He'd lost them somewhere back at the bazaar. Feeling rather smug Atton stuck his hands in his pockets and made his way back in the direction of where he'd last seen the other two men. He took the long way around and stayed on alert for any Zhug Brothers. He passed a weapon repair shop and heard the door open. Looking over he said, "Oh shi…" before a blaster bolt knocked him out.

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I want to thank all of you who leave me reviews. It really does mean a lot to me to get them. I can't even tell you how stupidly happy I get when a new one pops up. And I'd like to thank all the anonymous readers as well, I see the hits go up, and it gives me a warm fuzzy too.

**Lady Sara**: Why thank you, I had lots of fun writing it, had to draw on a few of the bar brawls I've seen, although none of them were this bad!

**JediSerenity**: Ditto, get crackin lady!

**Child**: I have a feeling that Tatooine cantinas see more than their fair share of brawls.;)

**Lunatic**: I don't think I've ever heard of that, but my knowledge of the EU is woefully underdeveloped. Wookiepedia for all it's faults is a lifesaver. Oh Carth does have some nifty swords from the first game... he just only brings them out for special occasions. Like big nasties. After all Revan wouldn't have needed them with a Lightsaber, so I figure she shared the wealth.

**Rhyska**: Well it is kinda like an Old West town. It's got no real law enforcement and whoever beats the crap out of or kills the other guy wins, so yeah there was a bit of that influence in there. Poor Mical, he's not sharing with me. I was surprised I could pry that out of him at all. I have a feeling despite his deceptively simple nature he's got hidden depths and is a very private person. Hopefully he'll stop clamming up soon. The ah... revelation about Atton's previous activities, well it's going to be nasty. Oh and that line is the Rodian talking to Atton, unfortunatly I normally use brackets to denote a non-Basic language, and the system won't except them, because it 's a schutta.

**Starburst:** Why thank you! I'm glad your enjoying my ramblings!


	15. The Third Padawan

Backup Pt 15: The Third Padawan

Carth came awake slowly, smacking his tongue against the roof of his mouth to try and ease some of the dryness. His head was pounding and he would have killed for a drink of water. In the background Carth could hear hushed voices in conversation from the next room. One voice belonged to Mical, while the other was high pitched and feminine, and sounded naggingly familiar. Carth opened his eyes and saw he was on a bed in a cool dim room. A light blanket had been thrown over him while he slept and Carth was very happy to see he wasn't restrained in any way. Slowly he eased into a seated position and dropped his head into his hands, trying to dispel the lingering effects of the stun blast. When the dizziness passed he stood slowly, making sure his balance was back before attempting to investigate the other voice. _I know that voice_, his thoughts fuzzy, _where do I know that voice from?_

Carth gratefully made his way to a small table where someone had thoughtfully left a full glass of water waiting. Gulping it down greedily he finished the drink and left the bedroom. He stopped in the doorway into a sparsely furnished living area and spotted Mical talking to a small cloaked figure with their back to Carth. Mical looked up from his conversation and spotted the Admiral.

"Oh good Admiral, you're awake…" Mical smiled at Carth. For some reason the shrouded person, a woman Carth decided, snickered at Mical's statement.

Carth rubbed his forehead. "Barely," he responded dryly. "Mind filling me in on where we are and who's your friend?"

Mical opened his mouth to respond but the petite woman interrupted. "Jeez, I guess it's true that old age affects your memory."

Carth's mouth dropped open as his brain finally clicked to recognize the owner of the voice. The woman turned around while pulling down the hood of her cloak. A bright blue face framed by two black tattooed headtails beamed at him. Weakly Carth asked, "Mission?!"

The twi'lek squealed in response and flew at Carth with lekku streaming out behind her. "Carth Carth Carth Carth!" Mission chanted as she threw her arms and his neck and almost knocked him over. Staggering a bit under the force of Mission's greeting, he managed to steady himself and hugged her back, still in shock. Carth realized that he was starting to feel the lack of air from Mission's tentacle like grip around his neck and gently untangled her. With a hand on each of his friend's shoulders Carth eased her back and stared at her in wide eyed disbelief.

"Mission! How…? Where…? When…? What the hell are you doing on Tatooine?" Carth looked the vibrantly azure twi'lek girl over. Mission was still small and slight, although she had managed to gain a couple of inches and just might be taller than Morii now. She looked healthy and uninjured. The shady Twi'lek was wearing a simple tunic and leggings and when Carth saw what was hanging from her belt… "Mission!" Carth didn't think he could be any more shocked if a ronto dropped on his head.

Mission giggled happily and said with an ear to ear grin, "Surprised?"

"That, kid, is the understatement of the century," Carth shook his head in wonder.

Mission mock glared at him. "Watch it with the name calling geezer!"

Carth threw back his head and laughed, pulling Mission into a tight embrace and Mission hugged him back fiercely, her lekku wrapping around Carth's shoulders. When they finally separated Carth drew back a bit and gave her his "Dad" look. "So Mish care to explain why you have a lightsaber hanging from your belt?" He raised his eyebrows at the girl who rolled her eyes in response.

"Uh, because I'm a Jedi…duh." Mission put her hands on her hips.

"When did this happen?" Carth had never had any idea that Mission was Force Sensitive, and if any of the Jedi that had traveled with them on the _Hawk_ knew they hadn't shared it with Carth.

Mission's face fell. "On Kashyyyk," she looked up at Carth sadly.

Carth's brow was wrinkled in confusion for a moment until his eyes widened when realization dawned, "There were three…"

* * *

About two and a half years ago: 

Carth was disobeying orders and he knew it, but he couldn't very well abandon Jolee. The cranky old Jedi was a friend, not to mention the fact that Morii had asked the _Hawk_ crew to look out for each other before she left to go Force knew where. Carth would be damned if he was going to let her down. He had brought some of his best ground troops with him and they were being escorted by Zaalbar's elite personal guard. Despite the protests of his aging chieftain father Freyyr, Zaalbar himself was leading the group. Carth, Zaalbar, five other Wookiees and ten Republic commandos had just exited the terrifying basket that lowered into the Shadowlands of Kashyyyk. Making their way through the perpetual twilight of the ground, it didn't take the group long to come upon Jolee's hut. Smoke rose from the chimney and at first glance everything appeared peaceful, but it didn't stay that way.

Jolee's garden was a shambles and there were pieces of broken furniture littering the tall grass in front. After Jedi across the galaxy had started dying or vanishing under mysterious circumstances Jolee had retreated back to his old hermitage, partly to keep out of the sights of this new threat, and partly to provide refuge to other Jedi on the run. Zaalbar knew that Jolee had a few Padawans in his care, but not who or how many. It was Rigad, Carth's old buddy from the Mandalorian Wars who had forwarded the intel to the Admiral that there was some sort of Sith attack being planned on some Jedi on the Wookiee planet. Unfortunately Rig didn't know anymore than that as the information source was weak at best. Rigad also warned Carth that pursuing the intel would put him in a load of bantha crap with Command. Carth almost chuckled at Rigad's knowing smile when he said that. The spook knew his old friend too well.

Zaalbar let out a sad chirp at the state of the house and growled in Shriiwook, This place smells of death Carth. We have come too late.

Carth ignored the Wookiee and pushed aside an upturned table that was blocking the hut entrance. Inside Carth spotted a crumpled form curled on the floor, clad in modest homespun clothes. The rest of the home was in a worse state that the yard. Splinters of wood from broken furniture, shards of dishes and the scent of flesh charred from lightsaber burns decorated the once homey room. Approaching the body he saw Jolee's chest rise slightly. "He's still alive!" Carth hollered back at the team. "Prew, get in here with the medical supplies!"

The soldiers and Wookiees entered, the natives stooped to compensate for the lack of headspace. Zaalbar came to the other side of Jolee's prostrate form while Carth began injecting the medpacks handed to him by what passed for the strike team's medic. Jolee had several lightsaber wounds, one of them clean through his throat. As if sensing their presence, Jolee cracked his eyes open weakly. He focused first on Zaalbar and then let his sight wander over to Carth, who was desperately trying the keep the old Jedi stable.

Jolee opened his mouth in an attempt to speak to Carth but was hindered by the gaping hole in his throat. Zaalbar put a comforting paw on Jolee's shoulder and said, Don't try to speak Hairless One, save your strength. Jolee had enough strength left to glare menacingly at Zaalbar for the title, and the chieftain-to-be chuffed in soft laughter. Not ready for the Shadowlands yet Jolee. Zaalbar said in approval for Jolee's silent rebuke.

Carth wasn't too sure about that. He only had rudimentary field medic knowledge but he and Prew shared a look, both having reached the same conclusion. There was nothing to be done. Carth looked sadly down at his old friend. Jolee quirked one corner of his mouth in response, he knew.

"Damn you old man, what the hell am I going to tell Morii when she gets back?" Carth's voice was harsh with grief. The possibility of her not returning had never even been verbalized by the old crew of the _Ebon Hawk_.

Jolee smirked for a moment, but then his face fell and he grabbed Carth's forearm with surprising strength. Jolee's mouth opened and closed several times, and little squeaks of sound escaped from the hole in his throat. Carth could tell Jolee had something he was desperate to say, but couldn't vocalize what it was. Jolee's eyebrows drew together in frustration as he looked back and forth between Carth and Zaalbar. The two shared a confused look over Jolee's body.

What is it Jolee? Zaalbar asked softly.

Finally Jolee's gaze settled on Carth and he mouthed a single word, 'Sorry.'

"What? Jolee what are you…?" Carth never got to finish his question as a white shaft of light pierced his vision and then the hut around him spun out of control. The walls were replaced by a blur of color and sound. Figures moved around the room backwards at impossible speeds. Finally the nauseating ride slowed and stopped. Carth found himself still standing in Jolee's hut, only now it was neat and comfy, much the way he remembered it from his first visit on the search for the Star Maps. Jolee was sitting at a table with one new addition, a data terminal that he was reading. A teenage human male with light brown shaggy hair was sweeping the floor. What looked like a young female Rodian was lying on her stomach on the floor, taunting a small furry tach with a piece of string. A fire burned cheerily in the hearth and a pot of Jolee's awful stew appeared to be simmering on the small stove in the corner.

"Jolee what the hell is going on?" Carth asked. Jolee made no acknowledgement of Carth's presence, and neither did the other two people in the room. "Jolee? JO-LEE!" Carth shouted but still got no response. "What the frack…?"

Jolee's head darted up, but he was looking toward the door, not at Carth. "Damn! Look's like the jig is up kids." The Rodian jumped up off of the floor and the human tossed his broom into a corner, where it promptly clattered over. Both of them darted to a corner of the hut and pulled out small travel packs, slinging them over their shoulders. After they were equipped they both came to stand in front of Jolee, and he put a hand on each of the kids' shoulders. "Okay kids, you remember the plan?" The two in front of Jolee nodded in response. "Good, now scat! You know what to do."

But Master what about…?

Jolee interrupted the Rodian girl, "She knows lass, and she's on her way now. Now you two get! I'll keep them busy as long as I can."

"But Master, we should stay and help!" The human boy was angry. "I'm not afraid of them!"

"And that just shows what an idiot you are, and mind that temper boy! I'm still your Master, so if I say get, you get!" Jolee's face softened. "I'm very proud of both of you. You kids are going to be great Jedi someday, but all's you're going to be is dead if you don't scoot. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." Jolee gave them a shove toward the door. "Go!" Reluctantly the Padawans exited the door and ran off into the gloom of the Shadowlands.

Carth watched the two run away until the mist rising from the ground caused them to disappear. Turning around he looked back at Jolee. The Jedi had dug his lightsaber out from somewhere and ignited it, grunting in satisfaction as the green blade sprang to life. "Jolee would you please…" Carth stared but paused when he saw Jolee tense in expectation. The old man was staring intently at the door. Carth turned to watch it as well, waiting for whatever it was to happen. He didn't have to wait long. Four figures shimmered into the room as if wearing stealth fields. Carth recognized them from descriptions that had been circulated through the command chain; they were Sith assassins that had been spotted during the murders of some Jedi. The very same assassins the Republic had surmised were hunting the Jedi into virtual extinction.

Carth pulled his vibroblade to assist Jolee only to find to his utter shock the blade passed through the Sith. None of this is really happening, or it already happened, Carth realized. Helpless he watched Jolee battle with the Sith, unable to assist in any way. Two Sith had already gone down, Jolee was still a formidable fighter with all the practice he had gotten from the Shadowland critters over the years. However when it was down to one Jedi and Sith, five more assassins materialized in the hut. One green blade fought viciously against six crimson sabers. Jolee battled for his life and managed to take down an amazing three more Sith before a red blade stuck home. Carth cried out "NO!" as strike after strike connected. One swing knocked Jolee's lightsaber out of his hand and all the Sith stabbed into Carth's old friend simultaneously. One through the chest, one in the side, and one caused Jolee's wound in his throat.

Carth clenched his fists and jaw in helpless agony as he watched Jolee fall. Carth was utterly helpless and he hated it. There was nothing he could do for Jolee; everything he was watching had already come to pass. Jolee fell to the floor under the onslaught and Carth winced as a Sith swung his saber down and pierced the Jedi's stomach with a final blow. Without ever uttering a single sound the assassins turned as one and exited the hut. Just when Carth thought things couldn't get any weirder Jolee slowly turned his face toward the Admiral and stared into Carth's eyes. It was then that Jolee finally spoke to him, but never moved his mouth.

_There were three._

Pain shot into Carth's brain as light and sound screamed through his head. A thousand times worse than the earlier sensation Carth felt like his skull was ripping in two as he dropped to his knees in agony. He clutched at the sides of his head as light and sound spun around him. Carth didn't know what was happening and it terrified him. He dug the tips of his fingers into his temples and let out an involuntary scream at his agony. Sound, light and color swirled around him but Carth wasn't seeing it with his eyes… he was seeing it with his mind. When it felt like his head was going to burst like an overripe fruit the swirling finally slowed and ground to a halt. He was now standing in a shaded glen in the Shadowlands. The two Padawan Jedi Carth had seen in Jolee's hut were standing in it nervously.

"Where is she?" the boy asked impatiently.

She'll be here, don't worry about… the Rodian stopped talking and pulled out her lightsaber, the human boy a second behind her.

"Too late," the boy said grimly.

Carth's universe swung around again, this time with only minor pain and he found himself back in the hut with his troops, the Wookiees and Jolee's now lifeless body. Carth was on the floor down on his hands and knees, panting heavily and covered in sweat. His eyes were huge as he gulped in deep breaths of air while trying to comprehend what had just happened to him. Zaalbar was to one side of him and the squad leader kneeled to the other.

"Admiral?" the soldier asked hesitantly. "Admiral, are you… alright?"

Carth what is wrong? Zaalbar's tone was scared. The Wookiee did not want to have the dishonor of telling his life-debter that he had let her mate die in his company.

Carth let out a shaky breath as he gazed at Zaalbar. For a moment Carth stayed on the floor in confusion. Suddenly he jumped to his feet and commanded, "Come on, we've got to move!" Carth didn't wait to see if the rest of the group followed but bolted out the hut door. The location of the clearing with the Padawans was burned into his brain and he headed down the forest paths without hesitation. Carth ran like a man possessed as he unerringly navigated the trails, moving like a Kashyyyk native. The Wookiees weren't far behind while the Republic commandos trailed in the rear. The entire group was too winded to ask where the Admiral was going, but followed in confusion. Finally after what seemed like ages to Carth they reached the glen. Shafts of light managed to pierce the canopy here while a small brook bubbled happily down some rocks. The clearing was peaceful and beautiful except for the two mangled forms crumpled in the middle. Carth was too late.

Prew knelt down to check the bodies but somehow Carth knew they were already dead. He rubbed his eyes vigorously with thumb and index finger in grief. Neither of the kids could have been old enough for legal adulthood, and now they never would be. "Dammit!" Carth whispered in anger at himself. Shaking off his sense of failure he spoke to his team commander, "There should be a third; we need to look for them." The commando leader gave Carth an incredulous look but turned without protest to his troops and started giving orders for them to search the area.

Zaalbar approached Carth and laid a gentle hairy hand on his friend's shoulder. Carth, what is going on?

Carth turned to look up at the Wookiee standing next to him and said, "I wish the hell I knew."

They never did find Jolee's last Padawan. Zaalbar kept sending down search parties, and Carth kept his ship in orbit around Kashyyyk for a week, despite threats of dire reprisals from fleet command. Finally they had given up the missing student for dead, and bodies didn't last long in the Shadowlands. They had burned Jolee and the two kids next to the old man's hut. Despite his best efforts Carth had never managed to find out their names. Jolee had been very thorough in making sure their identities were kept secret. Carth hoped they didn't have any family that would be looking for them. Zaalbar had promised to make sure all of his villagers knew to keep a look out for any bodies and report them back to Zaalbar, but both he and Carth knew it was a futile gesture.

It was two months later that Carth had his first dream with Bastila in it.

* * *

Tatooine: Present 

Mission and Carth were sitting on the edge of the flat roof of the building they were currently occupying. Mical had retreated to give them time alone, saying something about this being a good time to learn Shiirwook. Carth had given him an incredulous look at this and Mical had just smiled back innocently, then wandered into the main room. The temperature had begun to reach a more comfortable level as the second sun was setting in the horizon, painting the town of Anchorhead in colors of gold and pink.

"I don't get it Mish," Carth began, "Why didn't at least Zaalbar know you were training with Jolee?"

Mission gave a shrug. "No one knew. Jolee didn't think it was safe. Jedi were dying all over the galaxy, and after Katarr… well he just decided it was better to be safe than sorry. I told Big Z I was going to meet up with Griff on Coruscant, try to patch things up. He didn't even know I was training to be a Jedi. Being a Jedi has been way dangerous the past few years." Mission gave Carth a small smile, "As you saw first-hand on Kashyyyk."

Carth raised a disbelieving eyebrow, "You told him you were going to meet Griff and he bought it?"

Mission chuckled, "Hook, line, and sinker. In fact me and Big Z had a huge fight about it. At first it was kinda weird arguing with him about something I really had no intention of doing, but then I just started getting mad at him for trying to boss me around." Mission sighed and picked at a loose thread from her tunic hemline. "How is Big Z anyways? I haven't talked to him since that."

"At all?" Carth asked in surprise. "Mission…"

"Oh Force Carth don't go all fathery on me!" Mission turned a bit sheepish, "It was a pretty big fight."

"Maybe you should talk to him. I'm sure he's worried about you." Carth laid a hand on Mission's shoulder.

Mission smiled at as her headtail wrapped around Carth's wrist and she covered his hand with her own, "Yeah maybe… I have stuff to do here first. Hey Carth?"

"Yeah Mish."

"Thanks, for what you did for Kaffara and Dentel. They were friends… and I'm glad that someone was there to take care of things."

Carth squeezed Mission's shoulder gently, "I'm sorry Mission."

Mission gave a sad smile, "Yeah, me too. Jolee had told me if something like that happened to get of the planet yesterday. There were a few safe places that were known to only a few Jedi, and Jolee had given us their locations so that if something happened we could find a refuge. I stole away on the first freighter I could find. If I woulda known you were there Carth… well I would have tried to let you know, uh something." Mission laughed ruefully. "I never got it ya know? I mean the whole Force thing, not until Jolee started training me. I spent a year hanging out with Jedi and I didn't understand what it was like. I felt them die Carth, all of them. Jolee… well I don't think Jolee minded so much, but Kaff and Dentel hung around for a while bugging me, bossing me around." Mission gave a snort. "It was so weird being haunted by my friends like that. I know being a Jedi is all about weirdness but with Jolee gone, I had a hard time dealing. At least until I was able to find a new master."

Carth couldn't contain his curiosity any more. "So what exactly are you doing on Tatooine Mish?"

Mission's posture straightened and she looked, well _proud_. "Trying to stop, or at least curb the slave trade here on Tat. With Czerka gone and the Republic still recovering this planet has become a real hot spot for slave trafficking. You and your buddy down there actually stumbled into one of our safe-houses."

"And your Wookiee friend?" Carth asked. "If you haven't talked to Zaalbar where did he come from?"

"She," Mission corrected. "Brockrrwa was a slave. She managed to escape her master; a small independent mining company here run by the Exchange and found our network. The other guy you saw, the Sullustan is Lleekar, and he apparently got swindled into an indentured servitude when he was trying to get work as a pilot in this sector. He was actually rescued by network operatives."

"That's awfully dangerous…" Carth began.

"Carth! I am not…"

"A kid!" Carth finished for Mission and laughed. "I know, I know, certainly not anymore. You're a Jedi." There was a note of pride in Carth's voice. Even if Mission hated feeling babied, Carth had always felt the need to be a bit of a parent to the Twi'lek. Force knows the girl had so few people in her life she could count on.

Mission blushed a flattering lavender. "Well I'm still only a Padawan, but yeah…" she beamed at Carth. "Hey! Wanna see my lightsaber?"

Carth laughed. Despite probably being around twenty now, she hadn't really changed that much. "Sure Mish, show me your lightsaber."

Mission grinned and pulled it off of her belt. With a flick of her thumb the blade activated and a glowing purple blade shot from the handle.

Carth's face softened, "Purple huh? Just like her's, her second one…"

"Yeah, I guess that's why I picked the color. Remember when she made it?" Mission asked sadly.

"I remember."

* * *

"_It's time kiddo," Jolee said gently._

"_I'm doing just fine with a blade," Morii answered quietly._

_Jolee snorted, "Sure against a couple of Manaan's Sith troop flunkies, but what happens after we find the last Star Map?"_

_Carth had been heading to the swoop hanger to do maintenance to and install some upgrades on his blasters but stopped when he heard Morii's voice. He paused in the hall, unsure whether to turn around, or just go in and pretend she wasn't there. They hadn't been talking since they escaped the _Leviathan_ and avoided each other whenever possible. It was worse than the silence between them after Dantooine. Carth squirmed as he thought about that. He was starting to feel, well guilty about the whole damn thing, about what he'd done after escaping the Sith, and that pissed him off. He shouldn't feel guilty; he had been betrayed by both Morii and Bastila. He had no reason to feel sorry! Okay pulling his blaster, maybe that… no that definitely had been wrong. It had been… oh hell Carth was just confusing himself now and the pain that had been sitting in his chest since the _Leviathan_ was expanding again. He'd tried to get something for it from Jolee. The old Jedi had actually laughed at him and said there was nothing he could do for Carth; Carth was going to have to fix it himself. Carth had stomped out of the room pretending not to know what Jolee had meant. _

_Finally Carth came to a decision and turned to go when Morii spoke again. "I don't want another lightsaber Jolee."_

_Carth paused, curious despite himself. Morii's lightsaber had been damaged in her fight with Malak and hadn't worked right since. She instead had been using her old vibroblade from Taris. Carth had wondered why she hadn't made another._

"_Lass, you need another lightsaber. You can't take on Malak with a vibroblade, he'll eat you for breakfast."_

"_Well then you can make some Sith sandwiches out of what's left," she laughed bitterly._

_There was a period of silence from the room. Carth didn't understand the reference and was beginning to wonder what was going on when Morii said, "Besides, I don't have the materials anyways." Carth could almost picture Morii giving one of her one-shouldered shrugs._

"_Actually you do," Jolee responded. Carth heard a slapping noise like something being put into someone's hand._

"_You unbelievable old bastard…" Morii snarled quietly. The pain in her voice was unbearable._

"_Yeah I'm an old bastard," Jolee said, "but I'm also an old bastard who's right and you know it."_

"_How can you…" Morii cleared her throat and tried again. "How can you ask me to do this?"_

"_Because you need to do it," Jolee's voice was kind. "Morii, I think it'll help. It's time to deal with this kid."_

"_Deal? Deal! How do I deal Jolee?! Tell me how the frack I'm supposed to deal with this?!" Morii's voice was becoming shrill. _

"_By starting to face it!" Jolee yelled back._

"_Face it! It's facing me every day in the Force dammed mirror Jolee! I can't not face it! And you knew! You knew this whole time and you didn't say anything! Why didn't you say anything?! Why?!" There was a soft fleshy thump of her throwing something at Jolee and then a clank as it hit the floor. "Just… just go away Jolee," Morii whispered. Carth heard the sound of someone kneeling to the floor. A loud cracking of knees followed, telling Carth that it was Morii who had gone to the floor, and Jolee must have bent down to her._

"_Here kiddo, it's missing a focus crystal," was all Jolee said and then there was another round of snapping joints and brisk footsteps going out the other exit of the hanger._

_Carth stood there for a handful of seconds afraid to move and be overheard. He hadn't meant to eavesdrop but it had happened anyways. When he still hadn't heard any noise coming from the hanger Carth's curiosity got the better of him and he risked a peek around the corner. Morii was on her knees on the deck floor with her fists clenched in her lap. Directly in front of her sat a crystal that glowed with a faintly purple inner light. What held Morii's attention however lay about a meter away. It was a lightsaber casing, one with a double cylinder design. A double lightsaber. There was only one person on the ship who had used a two bladed saber… Bastila. It must have been her spare as the original had been with Bastila when she had taken on Malak._

_Carth watched Morii sit there and stare at the weapon. He waited for her to cry, to scream, to do something but instead she just sat. The only evidence of her internal anguish was reflected in her compressed fists and her eyes. It was the look in Morii's eyes which caused Carth's breath to catch in his chest. He'd seen that look before many, many times. It was the look of someone who was just waiting, waiting to finish one more thing and then… nothing. It was the look of someone who had nothing to lose, and nothing to live for. It was the look of someone who had no hope. It was the look he'd seen in the mirror every morning until the last couple of months, since Telos._

* * *

Carth swallowed and said brightly, "It's a great lightsaber Mission, I'm sure she'd be flattered." 

Mission gave him an unsure glance, "It's not too girly?" she asked.

"Nah," Carth answered. "Besides last time I checked you were a girl. You are… still a girl right?" Carth put exaggerated worry into his voice.

Mission rolled her eyes, "Ha ha," she said sarcastically as she shut off her weapon. She could tell the lightsaber had bothered him, so responded to the bad joke. "You're not as funny as you think you are you old fart."

"Sure I am, kids today have no sense of humor," Carth gave her a smug smile.

Mission in response stuck her tongue out at him and she suddenly felt fourteen again. Turning serious she asked, "So what are you doing on Tatooine _Admiral_ Onasi?" Mission jabbed a finger to Carth's chest.

"Why does everybody make fun of my rank?" Carth asked, irritated.

Mission laughed, "Maybe it's just funny that you're all respectable now."

"I've always been respectable," Carth muttered while he rubbed the spot Mission had stabbed. He then proceeded to tell Mission about looking for Morii and the Exile.

When Carth finished Mission said quietly, "Oh wow… you're really going to try and find her? Even after she told all of us not to?" Carth gave a nod to Mission's question. Mission gave him an incredulous look, "Well if you do find her she's probably going to kick your ass for not listening."

Carth burst out laughing, "Well I look forward to it."

"Ick, ick ick! I so do _not_ want to hear about you two's sex life!"

Carth laughed harder at Mission's disgust and after a moment she joined in. "So why Anchorhead?" she finally asked.

"All we know right now is that Ara Firestorm stopped on Tatooine on her way to wherever she was going, which seems to be wherever Morii is."

Mission sat and thought for a moment. Finally she said, "Well there was a Jedi here a few months ago, Jedi are still unusual enough to be well remembered. She actually helped out with a big slave bust up. We must have rescued, oh thirty sentients from that one."

Carth perked up, "Was it her?"

"I don't know," Mission shrugged. "I wasn't assigned to that mission and she was gone before I had a chance to meet her." When Mission saw Carth's face fall she added, "But my Master did."

"I need to speak with your Master Mission," Carth's tone was determined.

Mission gave a devious smile, "Oh she'll want to see you too." Mission merely gave back an innocent look to Carth's puzzled gaze.

* * *

A/N: Wow long time between updates! Unfortunaly real life gets in the way. Between personal illness, having to care for my dog during her last day's before we finally had to put her down, and the holidays I was totally tapped out. Plus I had to confess I had huge writer's block as well. It's moving forward a bit and I've gotten the urge to write again so I'm hoping I can move this story forward. Thanks to everyone who left previous reviews. Knowing that people are watching the story is honestly what keeps me at it. As always reviews and constructive critisim are welcome, I just ask that you be gentle on my fragile ego... heh. One other thing, this isn't beta read because I'm a moron and deleted the orginial beta. I take full resonsibility for any errors... or I'll blame Word. 


	16. The Ties That Bind and Chafe

This was it; there was no point in Atton's life where he had sunk any lower. Lock him up, let both the Sith and the Republic torture him for defecting, it couldn't be worse than this. There was _nothing_ worse than this. Atton squirmed for what must have been the hundredth time to try and find a comfortable position. He was chained, cold, and wearing the most horrible thing that had ever been invented by the most twisted and demented sentient in the galaxy. A booming throaty laugh echoed behind him.

/Ah, Atton Rand, you always were a hard human to please./

Atton closed his eyes in brief despair and said casually, "Go frack yourself, Lobosha."

Lobosha the Hutt laughed heartily/I always found you amusing, Atton Rand, as well as very, very aesthetically pleasing for a human./ Atton felt a tug at his neck but ignored it. A harder tug came this time and Atton grabbed on to a large statue situated in front of him to keep from being pulled backwards. Lobosha laughed again and yanked on the chain, causing Atton to gag as his windpipe was closed off. Still, he stubbornly clung to the statue in defiance.

Atton had originally woken up in slave quarters. As if that wasn't bad enough, Atton had recognized these slave quarters as belonging to Lobosha. Lobosha the Hutt was considered a bit of an oddity among the Hutts. While most Hutts liked keeping humanoid sentients as slaves, as something more like a piece of expensive furniture, something to showcase their wealth. Lobosha on the other hand liked male humanoids. She _really_ liked them. She had a fetish for legs, small eyes and noses, mouths with lips and smooth skin, of all hues. Twi'leks, Zabraks, Humans, Devaronians, all of them appealed to Lobosha's tastes. She had taken a special shine to a certain shuttle pilot in her employ, but unfortunately he had fled the planet before she could do anything about it. Originally she had been willing to pay Atton, not enslave him, but Lobosha was not willing to lose her prize so easily a second time.

/You should have taken me up on my offer, Atton; I would have made you rich./ Lobosha's voice was smug.

Atton merely turned around to glare and then gagged in response to another tug as the Hutt still had a death grip on the chain. Atton was beginning to think it was going to be _his_ death as little bursts of light popped in his vision and the edges of his sight started to go dim. Lobosha sighed and Atton saw her nod that big boil on top of her body that passed for a head at two of her "boy toys." Two identical-looking Iridonian males in outfits as obscene as Atton's moved forward and began to pry Atton's hands off his death grip on the statue. Unable to do anything else he gagged again while his face started turning purple. Finally the two Zabraks managed to loosen Atton's hold and he fell backwards, flat on his back. He blinked a few times and then Atton began a series of violent coughing fits as his body relearned how to breathe. He could hear Lobosha laughing somewhere behind him and having a grand time at his expense. Unwilling to attempt moving yet as that would probably bring him closer to Lobosha, Atton settled for glaring at the ceiling as if to blame it for all of his indignity. The tiny piece of cloth covering his crotch had started to bite painfully into certain parts of his anatomy, while the back part of the indecent outfit had bunched up between his butt cheeks. A metal wrought waistband that was probably supposed to look decorative held up the bit of gold cloth preserving the last of Atton's modesty. Heavy gold cuffs encircled his wrists, another was around his neck and was attached to the chain Lobosha was holding, and some idiot slave had actually dusted him with gold body glitter! He didn't think until now that it was possible for something so small to be so frelling uncomfortable. Atton was cold, he was embarrassed, and most of all he was seriously pissed off.

Atton had finally caught his breath, and stood. Deciding it was better to face his demons Atton turned and glared at the female Hutt. Lobosha's large eyes glistened as she looked over Atton's frame in appreciation. "So, Lobosha," Atton began as he crossed his arms over his toned and bare glitter-speckled chest, "how did you know I was in town?"

Lobosha's lipless mouth spread wide in a smile. /I knew the minute you landed, Atton, you and your delicious companions. Do you honestly think there's anything that happens in Anchorhead that I don't know about?/ Lobosha's head wobbled back and forth smugly. /That's why I had the bounty put on you and your friends. Dark, light, and red; with you three I would have a complete collection, and I like things to be complete./

Atton's eyes widened. _Fracking Schutta_, he thought. She was after Mical and Onasi too and they had no idea. They probably still thought it was Goto who put the bounty on them like Atton previously had. Atton wondered what had happened to them and hoped they were all right. This was a fate he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy let alone his companions, although he would have liked someone to share his pain with.

/Don't look so sad, Atton,/ Lobosha purred/I treat my pets very well.

* * *

Mission led Carth back down from the roof into the house. The suns had set and someone had lit several glass colored globes in the main room, giving it a homey yellow glow. Carth found Mical sitting at a battered table with the Wookiee Brockrrwa. The female Wookiee was gesturing broadly in an attempt to communicate something to the blond Padawan. Mical had a slight frown on his face when it suddenly brightened with understanding. 

"Ah I see! So there is no Shriiwook word for wood, but rather a name for each individual species. That must be very time consuming to memorize."

_Well I'll be dammed_, Carth thought, _he really is trying to learn Shriiwook_. Carth had become passable in the language thanks to a year spent in Zaalbar's company, but some of the finer points of the Shriiwook still eluded him. Mical's eyes were bright and he appeared riveted on the hairy sentient in front of him. Carth was familiar enough with Wookiee facial expressions to know that the Jedi was amusing the female Wookiee.

The sound of a door closing came from the back of the house where Carth and Mical had first entered. Everyone looked in that direction and Mission said, "She's back." The blue girl, no woman, Carth corrected himself, moved toward the back room.

Carth came over to Mical's side and look down at him in the chair, "Having a good time, Mical?" he asked. Mical looked so engrossed and delighted at what he was doing that Carth couldn't help but find the whole thing a little funny.

"Oh hello, Admiral," Mical seemed a little startled by Carth's appearance. "Yes actually I am. Shriiwook is an absolutely fascinating language. Do you know it's really a miracle at all that humans are able to learn it? Our ears just aren't designed for some on the finer tones and pitches. I always wanted a chance to examine the language but never had the opportunity."

Carth shook his head slightly. Learning Shriiwook was definitely not his idea of a good time. More like Carth's idea of getting a serious headache. "Well don't go too fast," he advised the Disciple. "Take it from a former Shriiwook student; it'll give you a migraine if you try to take too much in at once."

"I wasn't aware you spoke Shriiwook, Admiral," the look Mical shot Carth was full of respect. "It is true that the language is rather challenging, but that's what makes it so worthwhile. How did your visit go with your friend?" he asked Carth.

"Fine," Carth smiled, "Good actually. I haven't seen Mish in a long time."

"Ah yes, I gather from what I was able to glean from my previous conversation with her that she assisted you in the search for the Star Forge." Mical shook his head, sending his blond locks swinging back and forth. "She must be a very remarkable woman to take on so daunting a task at so young an age."

"Well people underestimate Mission at their peril," Carth confirmed. "She'd definitely…"

"Hello, Carth," a rich contralto said behind Carth's back.

Carth turned to the source of the voice. His eyes widened for a moment and then he gave a rueful chuckle. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see you here too, Juhani. How are you? You look well." And she did. She had that aura of peace, competence and serenity that he'd seen around Jedi so many times before. The Cathar woman was also wearing a neutral toned tunic and trousers covered by a long brown cloak.

Juhani had a slight but sincere smile on her face as she approached Carth and held out her hands in greeting. "Yes I am very well, thank you. You appear to be well yourself."

"I do alright, I'm glad to see you came through the Jedi purging intact." Carth took both of Juhani's hands in his and gave the woman a smile. He was genuinely glad to see the tall Jedi. Juhani and Carth had experienced some rocky moments during their travels, but by the end she was probably the only other person Carth would trust with Morii's safety as much as himself. They both felt the same way about Morii, but in the end Juhani hadn't held Morii's choice against Carth.

_

* * *

The door to the Star Forge main factory opened and Morii stumbled out of the room. Carth ran up to her and grabbed her before she fell down. "Morii, are you all right?" he asked; his voice desperate and relieved. Carth then hugged her tightly. _

"_Ouch!" Morii hissed in protest._

_Carth pulled back and felt his face flush. _Ass!_ He scolded himself viciously. Of course she wasn't all right. "Oh Force Beautiful I'm so sorry!"_

_Morii gave a one-shouldered shrug which caused her to wince as she leaned on him, "That's alright," she gave a weary grin up at Carth. "I think… I'm okay."_

_Jolee and HK- 47 moved up to the other side of Morii, "Let me take a look at you lass," the Jedi instructed._

_Realization dawned on Morii's face. "What the hell are you all doing here?" her voice hand turned angry._

_Jolee merely snorted a response as he examined Morii's injuries but Carth answered her, "We came looking for you. I was worried you weren't..." Carth couldn't even finish the sentence._

"_I'm going to beat the ever-loving crap outta Canderous," Morii muttered darkly as Carth positioned one of his arms under both of hers and around her back. Morii sagged into him gratefully despite her angry words. Carth saw now how bad she looked. She was covered in bruises, sweat, blood, and he could smell charred flesh from where various lightsabers had found their mark. One fresh wound appeared to have taken a chunk out her side and Carth quietly curled his free hand into a fist at the sight. Morii's hair had fallen half out of her braid and brown strands stuck out everywhere as they curled with a life all their own. She lifted the arm not holding on to Carth to brush at them as she spoke, but her hand was shaking so badly that it flopped back to her side before she could complete the gesture and she sighed in frustration._

_Carth unclenched his free left hand and did it for her_. She was here, she was alive, she'd be all right, and they'd be all right_, he thought as he stroked her head. "Well you're going to have to wait for him to wake up first," he told Morii in regards to Canderous._

"_Smug Statement: The Mandalorian Meatbag is currently unconscious. I attempted to terminate him for you Master, but your Republic Meatbag prevented it."_

_When Carth had made to go back into the Star Forge after Morii was when he found out about her last instructions to the Mandalorian. If the station was going down Canderous was to keep them from trying to go after her and instead get everyone in the _Hawk_ and off the Star Forge. Needless to say Carth and the rest of the crew had not been too keen on the idea._

"_You guys knocked him out?" Morii asked in shocked amusement._

"_Well I didn't get this from the Sith," Carth turned his head to show her the darkening bruise spreading under the stubble across the bottom of his left jaw. Carth was sure he had a lot of new bruises that were a lot nastier on other parts of his body, despite the fact that he was still in full armor during the scuffle with Canderous. The truth was the only reason Carth wasn't the one unconscious was that a certain assassin droid had been just as unwilling to leave Morii behind as Carth was. Between the two of them they had taken Canderous down._

"_Surprised Observation: Despite being a mediocre organic, the Republic Meatbag was surprisingly vicious with the Mandalorian Meatbag. The fight was highly amusing."_

"_Gee, HK, I guess we're best buddies now," Carth responded to the backhanded compliment._

"_Bantha ass," Morii said quietly to Carth. Despite Morii's words her tone was soft. She again tried to lift her arm this time to touch the bruise only to have it drop down again._

"_That was a dirty trick, Gorgeous," Carth scowled at her. He had been extremely pissed off at Morii when he found out her instructions to Canderous, but he was just too damn glad she was alive to say any of the things he'd originally been planning._

_Morii opened her mouth to answer him but the floor under them rolled violently before she could get a word out. When the motion stopped she looked at Jolee and then Carth and said, "We need to get out of here now."_

"_Yeah with Bastila dead…" Morii winced at Carth's words. They had found Bastila's body a couple of rooms ago. Carth had stared down at the corpse of his friend sadly for a moment before moving on. He couldn't help the dead, years of war had taught that lesson very well. Carth began again, "With Bastila dead and the station's defenses destroyed the fleet is moving in. Everyone else is already on the Hawk."_

"_Well you'll live," Jolee told Morii. "I can do more on the ship but Carth's right we need to get out of here. Can you walk lass?"_

"_Yes," Morii answered automatically. She took a step and began to fall. Carth grabbed at Morii and managed to catch her before she hit the ground. "Um, maybe… with a little help," Morii grinned a bit sheepishly at the other two men and Carth let out an angry sigh. He knew better than to ask her to let him carry her._

"_Well let's not wait for this place to come down around our ears," Carth suggested as he held Morii against his right side and pulled out a blaster with his free hand. The four of them took off for the hanger._

_They encountered surprisingly few stray Sith on the way to the ship, and Jolee, with Carth and HK backing him up with blaster fire, easily dispatched them Jolee guessed that most of the Sith had grabbed whatever transport they could and gotten off the station by now. The worst incident was when they came across the largest group consisting of about five dark Jedi accompanied by several Sith troops. While Jolee was more than capable he was having trouble holding his own with Carth having only one blaster while he was holding up Morii. It turned bad when HK took a hit that disabled its targeting system. Finally Morii lifted up her right hand and sent a wave of energy pushing out at the Sith. Three of the dark Jedi and most of the soldiers immediately went over the railing. Morii's eyes rolled into the back of her head and her legs gave out from under her from the strain of using the Force. Carth grabbed tighter with his right arm to keep her from falling while he and Jolee killed the two remaining dark Jedi and Carth took out the last trooper with a shot through the faceplate._

_After the fight Jolee came stalking back to them with a dark look on his face. Morii's head was leaning heavily against the top of Carth's shoulder. Her face had turned gray and was covered in sweat. "If you **ever** do that again I'll knock you upside the head girl! There was a reason **I** wasn't using the Force!" he roared at Morii._

"_Threat: Old Meatbag, I shall be forced to enjoy using extreme measures if you threaten the Master. Master, May I kill him?"_

"_Shut up, HK," Morii muttered with her face half buried in Carth's shoulder._

_Carth gave Jolee a confused look. "What? What did she do?"_

_Jolee glared at Morii while he answered Carth, "She used her own life-force to power her use of the Force." Morii gazed blandly back at Jolee while he continued to glower at her._

_Carth rolled his eyes and instructed sarcastically, "Basic Jolee."_

_They started moving again with Carth practically having to drag Morii along. He couldn't pick her up now as it would leave him unarmed and he didn't know if there were anymore Sith lurking. Jolee muttered a continuous tirade about kids and stupidity before he finally answered Carth. "She exhausted everything she had left in her battle against Malak. Like me, she had nothing to call on, so the idiot girl drew on her own life to power the attack. I thought we'd moved past this whole death wish thing of yours!"_

_Carth still didn't get it and it must have shown on his face because Jolee continued, "She almost killed herself… stupid kid!" The last bit was directed at Morii._

"_It worked didn't it?" Morii answered in irritation. Carth had felt his blood run cold at the implications of what she'd done. _Damn woman! _She was going to give him a brain aneurism with the stunts she pulled!_

"_Complaint: Master how is this unit supposed to protect you if you insist on exhibiting self-destructive behavior?"_

"_Shut **up,** HK!" Morii glared at her droid._

_As they continued toward the elevator Carth leaned into Morii's ear and whispered fiercely, "Don't ever do that again Morii."_

_Morii gave him a disbelieving look and then narrowed her eyes. "First off where do you get off lecturing me on self-destructive behavior Mr. I-wanna-take-on-Saul-and-the-entire-Sith-army-by-myself? Second, who made you the boss of me? And third, we were out of options. If you think that just because you and I are sleeping together that gives you the right…" Morii was starting to yell as she worked herself up and HK watched her with anticipation._

_Jolee's lips twitched as he pretended to be deaf to the conversation while Carth interrupted Morii's tirade, "Beautiful," he said softly. Morii had paused at his tone, "I can't lose…" Carth slowed down while Jolee sped up his pace to give them the illusion of privacy, HK however had no such compulsion. _

"_I can't lose you. If I had to go through that again," Carth sighed, "I'm not sure I'd come out the other side. So please, let us take care of you for a change."_

_Morii gave him a look full of pain, guilt, and a bit of wariness thrown in. Carth stopped his stride, "Please, Morii," he pleaded. She sighed, gave a nod and they continued toward the elevator._

"_Disappointed Conclusion: I do not get to shoot your Meatbag now, do I, Master?" HK hung its head._

_When the elevator doors opened Morii had reached the end of her endurance and her knees buckled and her legs gave out. Without a word Carth holstered his blaster and swept his left arm under her knees. It was a testament to how bad off Morii was that she didn't even yell curses at Carth and tell him to put her down. He shifted her weight to a more comfortable position and the group stepped into the elevator._

_The elevator shook violently as they rode it to the hanger and Carth and Jolee gave each other a nervous look. Carth tapped his foot anxiously in response to the increasing tremors and shifted Morii as gently as he could. He was dead tired and she was getting damn heavy in his arms._

_Finally the elevator opened to the hanger and the _Ebon Hawk_. Pieces of the ceiling were coming down around them and they headed for the ship at a full run. Juhani was standing at the loading ramp, craning her neck in the direction of the elevator. A look of naked relief crossed Juhani's face when she spotted them coming at the ship and she ran out to meet the group. Another quake rocked the station. Jolee, Carth and HK all stumbled and Carth almost dropped Morii. She let out a pain-filled cry as he clutched at her. Finally they made it to Juhani's position and she held out her arms to Carth._

"_Give her to me, we need to leave as soon as possible," she told Carth. Carth looked into Juhani's eyes, on level with his own and a meaningful look passed between them. "I will take care of her, Carth; you are needed to fly the ship." It was the first time Carth really understood that Juhani really _loved_ Morii, probably as much as he did. He had thought until then it was just a bad case of hero worship, compounded by infatuation. But looking into Juhani's eyes Carth could see he'd been wrong. Like Carth, there was just about nothing Juhani wouldn't do to keep Morii safe. To his shame Carth realized he had thought that the Cathar's feelings for Morii were less than his own._

_Carth nodded once, and gently transferred Morii to Juhani's arms. "C'mon, Jolee, with Morii out I'm going to need a co-pilot."_

* * *

They sat around the old table long into the night talking. Brockrrwa and Lleekar who joined them later ended up leaving protesting exhaustion, but Carth, Mission and Juhani had a lot to catch up on. In between regaling each other with various adventures since they'd last seen each other they entertained Mical with tales from their quest for the Star Forge. Mical was an eager audience and wanted to at some point add their stories to the Jedi Archives. Carth protested the idea. 

"Mical, if it were widely known who Morii really is… well she'd never be safe, not only from assassins but just various planetary governments who would seek to prosecute her for her crimes as Darth Revan."

"I agree with Carth, it is too dangerous." Juhani put in, "Morii is not the same person she was as Darth Revan, and would be unfair to hold her accountable for the things she did. Until you have experienced the Dark Side, you cannot appreciate how much it changes you." Juhani's face was sad as she spoke. "It is like your very soul becomes twisted with the darkest impulses you have ever experienced. You think nothing of others; think nothing of following your basest of instincts. I would not wish to see Morii go through more pain than she has already experienced. She carries a heavy enough burden just from the knowledge of who she was."

Mical gave the Cathar a long look, "You know from firsthand experience, don't you?"

Juhani's smile was soft, "Yes, and it was Revan who brought me back from the brink. Knowing what I know from my brief fall, I cannot even imagine how much more difficult it is for her to deal with the pain and guilt."

"The Jedi Archives are restricted," Mical protested, "They would only be accessible to the Order. I believe that Revan's story is truly inspirational and should not be lost to history."

"Like the Exile's information and identity?" Carth retorted, "Mical, you yourself told me of how her identity and return to Republic space had been leaked into general information. And look what she had to go through."

Mical frowned and sighed, "I suppose you are right. It just seems such a waste. I just thought that perhaps hearing Revan's tale would inspire and teach others. What she managed to accomplish and overcome was truly incredible." Mical planned on pursuing the matter later however. Perhaps if they did find Nemorii Vohn he could convince her instead. He looked up at Juhani, "I understand you had the opportunity to meet with Ara?"

"Yes, Jedi Firestorm was here for almost a month. You are looking for her?"

"Yeah," Carth was the one to answer while Mical nodded. "We think she went after Morii."

Juhani's nearly invisible eyebrows shot up at this, "Why? Morii wanted no one to follow her. She was very adamant on the matter." The frown on Juhani's face showed how unhappy she'd been about it.

Carth chuckled and shared an amused look with the female Jedi, "Well you know how Morii can be…"

"Stubborn," Juhani smirked and nodded her head for emphasis. Her face grew more serious, "Something is building in the Force, I have felt it these past six months, although my Padawan is much more talented at reading such currents than I." Juhani smiled fondly at Mission.

"Yeah… it is," Mission was staring off into space. "It's like there's this tension… like someone's pulling a piece of string too tight almost to a point where it's going to break. It's setting everything on edge. Not to mention that people are saying all over the galaxy that Terentakeks have been breeding like gizka. Something's coming… something bad. Sometimes when I'm meditating I can feel the vibrations, like a hum in the Force. Whatever it is its dark, real dark… and hungry."

Carth watched as Mission spoke with a slight chill. It was a bit unnerving to see her go all Jedi like that. "I don't suppose you have anything more concrete than that?" Carth's voice was amused but tired. He may have been used to the whole Cryptic Jedi act but it still irked him occasionally.

Mission laughed at the annoyed look on Carth's face. "Sorry," she shrugged an apology, "the Force doesn't speak Basic."

"I have also felt what you describe," Mical added, "although not as clearly as you have. I couldn't have put it into words at all. The Jedi Purging, Malachor, the current troubles of the Republic, even possibly going back to the Mandalorian Wars and Revan and Malak's fall; something has been moving in the Force for some time. Perhaps whatever it is, it's finally coming to fruition." Mical sighed, "It is most frustrating to try to fight shadow and impressions."

"Perhaps the reason we have all come together is that the shadows are coalescing," Juhani speculated. She then turned to Mical, "But to answer your question; yes she was here. Jedi Firestorm was instrumental in an operation that the Movement performed to free several slaves slated for the Exchange mines. After it was completed she left. She took passage on a freighter. I'm afraid that's really all I know." Juhani gave the Disciple and apologetic shrug. "We have an extensive network however, I could see about looking into it."

Mical gave a grateful nod, "I would appreciate it."

Carth sighed, "Unfortunately, that's not even close to the extent of our problems." Carth and Mical filled in the two women on Atton's disappearance and their mysterious bounty. Mission seemed to find the bounty amusing.

"Isn't there some rule against Republic Admiral's getting bounties put on them?" Mission gave Carth a wide grin.

Carth snorted, "Smartass." Mission giggled in response.

"You know, I may be able to find something out in regards to the bounty," Mical put in. "I don't know why this didn't occur to me before but I have an acquaintance who is a bounty hunter. I'll need access to a communications terminal, preferably a secure one."

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Mical. It probably had something to do with that whole running for our lives thing," Carth joked.

Mical gave him a return smile, "Yes that ah… may have distracted me."

"And tomorrow me and Juhani will see if we can find out anything about your missing friend," Mission put in and Juhani nodded her agreement. "We've got a lot of contacts and you two should probably lay low with this whole bounty thing."

Carth frowned but realized Mission was right. He hated sitting on his hands though. "Alright, I suppose we should all get some rest then."

The rest of the group agreed and they headed for bed.

* * *

Mission and Juhani headed out early the next morning. Mical, adorned in lots of flowing robes and a head wrap to disguise him accompanied Mission to another Movement safe house, one that had a secure interplanetary communications system. Carth was left alone with Lleeker for the first part of the morning. Luckily they both understood Huttese and Basic and through a combination of both entertained each other by swapping piloting stories. Lleeker had certainly been around the galaxy if his stories had any truth to them. Carth ended up offering Lleeker a job as a contract pilot for the Republic if he decided to leave Tatooine. With the Fleet perpetually short handed they were always on the lookout for private individuals to fill in. Hell it's how Morii ended up on the _Spire_ in the first place. Carth gave the Sullustan the name of a contact. He'd had to take a skills test, but if Lleeker was a good as he indicated, he should pass it with no problems. Lleeker seemed excited about the idea and confided in Carth that while he was very grateful to the Movement, he longed for the vibrations of a hyperdrive engine under his feet. 

After the Sullustan took off to go do some errands, Carth wandered the house alone a bit aimlessly, straightening up and washing the dishes from breakfast. Finally Mical and Mission came back, Mical with a smile on his face.

"I take it you managed to get a hold of your friend?" Carth asked the Disciple.

"Oh yes, after a bit of work and she's more than willing to look into the bounty contract for us. Mira was rather amused that I had a bounty on me."

Mission snickered at this, "I think she said something like, 'it's a good thing I consider you a friend or might take it up myself.'"

"Ah well that was Mira's particular brand of humor, frankly I'm not the type of bounty she usually goes after," he gave the Twi'lek a slightly amused look. "She said she'd let us know when she had anymore information."

"Yeah there's a standing order with the Com Station to contact me or Juhani if anything comes through on that," Mission nodded. "So has Juhani been back yet?"

"Nope," Carth shook his head. "It's just been me for the past hour or so."

Mission gave the Admiral a devious smile, "Soooo, how about a game of Pazaak? Ya know, for old time's sake while we wait?"

Carth gave her a cynical look, "Why, so you can take all my credits just like the good old days too?"

"Hey you're an Admiral now," Mission protested. "It's not like you can't afford it." She then shrugged and gave Carth her best innocent look.

Carth gave a weary sigh in return, "Sure, it's not like I've got anything better to do… uh you'll have to take an IOU on the credit's you cheat me out of."

"I do not cheat!" Mission said.

"And I'm a purple nerf," Carth retorted with a snort. "What about you, Mical?"

"Actually I believe I'll take this opportunity to meditate," Mical then gave them a small bow and headed to the bedroom the two men were sharing.

Three hours and two hundred and fifty of Carth's credit's later, Juhani finally returned. As she walked into the main area she pulled off her cloak and set it on the back of an empty chair. Her face was tight and unhappy. Mical, with that uncanny Jedi timing also walked into the room a moment later.

Carth's mouth turned down at the sight of Juhani's expression, "Bad news?"

"I am afraid so," Juhani sighed. "Retrieving your friend will be extremely difficult. It seems he has become the latest acquisition of Lobosha the Hutt."

Carth and Mical shared a horrified look. "You don't suppose…?" Carth asked the other man.

"Poor Atton," Mical shook his head.

Mission's face was also sympathetic for this man she had never met. "So you two know about Lobosha's er, tastes?"

"Atton gave us the brief version," Carth told her.

"Well he'll be lucky to still be wearing his," Mission cracked. "Luckily er… Hutts and humans aren't um, anatomically compatible, so at least your friend's virtue is probably safe."

"Yuck," commented Carth.

Juhani chuckled, "Well we should be grateful for that at least. Normally I would suggest buying him back, but I doubt Lobosha would be willing to sell him at any price. The rumor is she is quite pleased with her most recent slave."

"He's a slave as well?" Mical asked. "Oh dear, I'll bet he's terribly upset." Carth gave him a curious look but Mical shook his head. "I'm afraid it's not my story to tell, Admiral."

Carth shrugged and decided to let it drop, "Okay, so ideas on how exactly we get Atton back?"

"Well," Mission began, "We could probably get the Movement involved on this one, as a group we've been looking to stick it to her for a while. While Lobosha's not much of a trafficker, she has a large number of personal slaves, and most of them are _not_ happy." Mission's personal communicator beeped right about then, "Yah," she said into it.

_/This is Repleth at Central Com_,/ a voice said in Huttese/_we got a response on that com your friend sent out earlier./_

Mission looked over at Mical, "Is it okay if I have him patch it through?" she asked.

Mical nodded in response and Mission said into the communicator, "Go ahead and send it through, Repleth."

A holo emerged from the projector in the girl's communicator and an attractive young woman with short styled red lengths, tight clothes and a lot of cleavage appeared. _"Hey Mical, you have no idea what a pain this was, you owe me a big one. Bad news, Jedi, it seems the local she-Hutt boss in Anchorhead has targeted you. Her name's Lobosha and she's got a thing for, uh… humanoid guys,"_ the woman smirked_. "Looks like she's looking to add you, Atton and that Admiral guy you mentioned to her ever growing harem. So unless you get your kicks outta big ugly slugs I suggest you three blast the hell off that planet. Let me know if you need anything else."_ The holo abruptly shut off which was a good thing as Mission had fallen onto the ground in fits of hysterical laughter.

* * *

Carth sighed and ran both of his hands through his hair, "I don't know if I like this plan, too many things could go wrong." They were all sitting in the common's area, which had become their habitual spot over the past several days. While others in the Movement had come and gone throughout the house, the core group of Mission, Juhani, Carth and Mical had been a constant in the residence. Well, in the Padawan Disciple and the Admiral's case it had been mandatory. Both the female Jedi had brought back reports of several bounty hunters in the area actively hunting the two men. Apparently Lobosha's payout was pretty high. 

"It is risky," Juhani agreed with Carth, "but I believe it is our best chance to retrieve your friend. I'm afraid I can't come up with anything better."

Carth slumped down in his chair, "Neither can I." Carth gave a hopeful glance at Mission and Mical. Mission gave a helpless shrug and Mical shook his head dejectedly.

"Believe me, I am not exactly thrilled with this plan either," Mical gave the others a nervous look. "If this goes wrong, I am looking at a very unpleasant future."

"Don't worry, Mical," Mission patted him on the shoulder, "We'd at least send yah a sympathy card."

Carth let out a single bark of laughter at the incredulous look the Disciple gave the Twi'lek. Mical seemed to be trying to figure out if Mission was serious or not. Carth sighed, "Well at least someone's going to be happy about this. HK'll be thrilled."

"That is the first phase," Juhani put in. "Mission and I will retrieve the droids from the Ebon Hawk."

Everyone in the room paused in the conversation to turn and watch the newest addition to their little scheme enter the room.

"Just for the record, I think you've all been chewing spice, you know that?" Mira asked with a smirk and a fist resting on her hip.

* * *

AN: I'd like to thank Kirabaros for pickup up betaing this again after such a long hiatus. I just know i'm going to get hate mail for Atton but I always disliked the gold bikini incident in ROTJ. Leia really got the shaft there. So i decided its time to balance the scales and gave Atton a male version of the gold bikini, so uh... now Atton Rand really is a man-whore. Thanks everyone who reviewed. 

Sharing: why thank you:D Yes unfortunatly another story is eating up a lot of my writing time so it's slow going.

Slkwind: Well I have a confession... this chapter's been sitting on my hard drive for a while...

Starburst: Sorry about the cold, I think we've all been there. I'm flattered that my ramblings could do that! Well now you know, were you right? lol

Facing: Yeah but she's kind of dead so... well I guess if Qui-gon can pull it off why not Bastila? Oh and since I rule you... bring me a soda will ya? ;D

Bexababe: That's one of the nicest comment I think a FF author can get TY

Lunatic: Gold star! Um you win... the satisfaction of knowing you were right.;)

Atlantis: Thank you so much for the kind words!

Rhyska: Yeah I orignally was going to put Jolee into the story, but he kept telling me "I'm old dammit! Let me get some rest!" So I killed him. As to Yuthura... you realize I was smacking myself in the forehead for not even think of that! Ah well.

Insane: Yes I am highly addicted to SWG and am also on my guild council so it takes up a fair amount of what free time I have. Thank you for all the comments!

As always reviews are welcome, I love them and read everyone. I don't know why I'm so bad about using the reply system, but I never seem to get around to it. I'm sure I missed at least one mechanics problem... I always do :D


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